ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG, 


THROUGH   TEXAS, 


FROM  THE  GULF  TO  THE  RIO  GRANDE. 


ALEX   E.  J>WEET_  AND  ].  ARMOY   KNOX, 
Editors  of  "  Texas  Sif tings." 


ILLUSTRATED, 


HARTFORD,  CONN.: 
S.    S.    SCRANTON    &    COMPANY. 

HOUSTON  AND  ST.  LOUIS:    T.  N.  JAMES  &  CO.;    SYRACUSE:    WATSON 

GILL.    CINCINNATI:    THE  CINCINNATI  BOOK  AND  BIBLE  HOUSE: 

CHICAGO:    C.  B.  BEACH  &  CO.:    PHILADELPHIA:  THAYER, 

MERRIAM,   &   CO.:    SAN  FRANCISCO:    A.  L. 

BANCROFT  &  CO.  f 

I883. 


7, 


COPYRIGHT,  1883, 
BY  SWEET  &  KNOX. 


.franklin  $r 

RAND,   AVERV,    AND 
BOSTON. 


NOT   A    PREFACE. 


/fc^^ 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

PAGE. 

An  Eighteen-Carat  Desperado.  —  The  Man  from  Texas.  —  An  Awful  Acci- 
dent.—  Heroic  Conduct  of  the  Man  from  Texas.  —  His  Ranch  on  the 
Rio  Frio.  —  Invited  to  Texas.  —  Leaving  New  York.  —  Arrival  in  Texas. 

—  Galveston.  —  Strange   and   Unique  City.  —  Cosmopolitan  Population. 

—  Diversity  of  Languages.  —  Magnificent  Beach.  —  Tropical  Vegetation. 
— "  Dreams   of  the   Orient."  —  Board   of    Health.  —  Disinfecting   Dead 
Letters.  —  The  Pirate  Lafitte.  —  First  Great  Fraud  in  Louisiana.  —  Jeal- 
ousy between   Galveston  and  Houston.  —  Sand-Crabs  and  Mud-Turtles. 

—  Yellow- Fever   Germs.  —  The   Infected   Coffee-Bean. —  Quarantine. — 
Two  Thousand  Dollars' Worth  of  Strategy 15 

CHAPTER    II. 

Sunday  in  Galveston.  —  Houses  built  on  the  Sand.  —  Bathing  Facilities. — 
Expostulating  with  a  Policeman.  —  A  Popular  Fallacy.  —  The  Beach. — 
Scanty  Costume.  —  The  Man  with  a  Spy-Glass.  —  The  Bar.  —  A  Thou- 
sand Per  Cent. —  Acres  of  Calico.  —  At  Dinner.  —  The  Doctor  .  .  28 

CHAPTER    III. 

The  Procession.  —  Extraordinary  Outfit.  —  The  Doctor's  Arsenal.  —  He  want- 
ed to  buy  Beads  for  the  Indians.  —  All  Aboard  for  Houston.  —  Buffalo 
Bayou.  —  The  Magnolia.  —  Spanish  Moss.  —  Ninety-Five  Degrees  in  the 
Shade.  —  The  Superannuated  Old  Hen-Coop.  —  Ten  Miles  of  History. — 
Dry  Seasons.  —  "Let's  Wood  Up."  —  Shooting  Alligators.  —  Devastating 
the  Boat's  Commissary.  —  The  Journey  of  Life.  —  Born  with  the  Family 
Plate  in  his  Mouth.  —  Arrival  at  Houston.  —  Houston  in  1840.  —  "  Infested 
with  Red  Ants  and  Methodists."  —  Hotel  Chair-Sculptors.  —  Competitive 
Lying.  —  The  Rooter  Dog.  —  "Green  from  the  States."  —  Tropical  Wel- 
come. —  One  Policeman  to  Fifteen  Saloons 38 

CHAPTER    IV. 

"Giving  Galveston   Hell."  —  Pluribus   Unum,  Nox  Vomica,  Vox   Populi. —          , 
Anchoring  Galveston  Island  with  an  Artesian  Well.  —  Houston  as  a  Sea- 


6  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

port.  —  White-Winged  Messengers  of  Commerce.  —  "Damned  Sight  of 
Curiosity  for  a  Stranger."  —  A  Blooded  Grade  of  Mosquitoes.  —  The 
Muscogee  Indian.  —  "Wild  Unpremeditated  Eloquence."  —  "Semi-Bar- 
baric Pictures  of  Homer."  —  Howling  Jews-Harp,  the  Indian  Chief. — 
The  Doctor  Disgusted.  —  Another  Idol  Broken.  —  The  Noble  Savage  a 
Fraud.  —  The  Future  of  Houston 49 

CHAPTER   V. 

In  Search  of  Saddle-Horses.  —  A  Caballada.  —  The  Wild  Steed  of  the 
Prairie.  —  Yells  Unearthly  and  Language  Sulphureous.  —  The  Castilian 
Caballo.  —  Alphabetical  Vagaries.  —  A  Picturesque  Plug.  —  The  Clay- 
bank  Pony.  —  Our  Outfit.  —  The  Texas  Saddle.  —  On  Board  a  Mexican 
Mustang.  —  A  Corner  in  Corn.  —  Phenomenally  Productive  Soil.  —  Im- 
mense Extent  of  Texas.  —  Romance  in  Figures.  —  Speaking  in  Italics. — 
Swearing  in  Large  Capitals.  —  Invented  History.  —  "Sure,  I'm  in  Texas 
Now." — Land  of  Desperadoes  and  Long-Horned  Cattle.  —  The  London 
"  Spectator,"  and  John  Wesley  Hardin.  —  Out  on  the  Prairie.  —  Bucking 
Ponies.  —  A  Moving  Sight.  —  No  Pomp  and  Circumstance  about  Him.  — 
Bucked 60 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Brazos  Bottom.  —  Money  growing  on  Trees.  —  The  Oratorical  Bore. — 
"Louder!  Louder!  Louder!"  —  The  Old  Plantation  before  the  War. — 
The  Negro  as  a  Slave.  —  The  Negro  as  a  Free  Man.  —  "Right  Smart  o' 
Distance."  —  "Skirmishin*  'roun' fur  Grub."  —  "I  ain't  no  Flossifer."  — 
Los  Brazos  de  Dios — A  Depraved  Set.  —  First  American  Colony  in 
Texas.  —  Free  versus  Slave  Labor.  —  The  Story  told  by  Judge  Schultz. 

—  An  Unadulterated  Lie 72 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Sugar-Cane  and  Molasses.  —  "You  must  furnish  your  own  Barrels."  —  Mode 
of  Travelling.  —  Camping  Out.  —  Unhorsed  on  the  Prairie.  —  A  Woful 
Sight.  —  After-Supper  Reflections.  —  Night  in  the  Woods.  —  A  Chorus  of 
Demons.  —  The  Doctor's  Mistake.  —  A  Reservoir  of  Mirth.  —  A  Ghastly 
Joke.  —  The  Coyote.  —  Room  to  think.  —  A  Place  to  practise  Oratory. 

—  Dinner  in  Camp         ...........      82 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

In  Search  of  Shelter.  — "Hello,  There!"  — The  Old  Ruin.  — The  Hospitable 
Southern  Planter — The  Planter's  Residence.  —  The  Colonel.  —  "The 
Healthfullest  Country  in  the  World.1'  —  Quinine.  —  Corn-Bread  and  Fry. 

—  "When  I  kem  Here  in  '46."  —  Game.  —  Threatened  with  a  Chill. — 
Fish-Stories   by   the    Doctor.  —  Piscatorial    Lying    by  the   Colonel.  — 

,         "Chawed  up  Considerable."  —  Needing  Fresh  Air.  —  "Chills  is  Noth- 
in'."  —  The  Absurd  Potato-Bug.  —  Man's  Extremity  the   Mosquito's  Op- 


CONTENTS.  7 

PAGE. 

portunity.  —  "  The  Vittles  sot  Out."  —  The  "Sweetnin"'  gave  Out. — 
Thousands  of  Cows  and  no  Milk.  —  The  Hired  Man's  Grace  before 
Meat.  —  Four  Dollars'  Worth  of  Hospitality.  —  Filing  a  Counter-Claim  .  95 

CHAPTER   IX. 

A  Texas  Negro.  —  Was  it  a  Circus?  —  Going  to  Camp-Meeting.  —  The  Great 
Gun  of  the  Occasion.  —  Discharging  the  Gun.  —  The  Camp-Ground. — 
"  A  Mighty  Movin'  Preacher."  —  "  I's  Tolerable,  Thanky."  —  The  Negroes' 
Wonderful  Power  of  Memorizing.  —  The  Hymn.  —  The  Prayer.  —  "  Amen ! 
Yes,  Lord."—  "A  Powerful  Rattler  of  Dry  Bones."  — The  Text:  "Death 
in  de  Pot."  —  "  De  Kingdom  am  a  comin'."  —  The  Exhortation.  —  The 
Peroration.  —  Religious  Paroxysms.  —  Getting  Religion.  —  An  Effectual 
Means  of  Grace.  —  Improvising.  —  Lost  in  the  Woods.  —  Directions  as 
to  the  Way.  —  A  Blazed  Road  .  .  . 108 

CHAPTER   X. 

Suffering  from  Thirst.  —  In  Search  of  Water.  —  Deceptive  Distances.  —  A 
Sabbath  Day's  Journey.  —  Mr.  O'Lafferty  burned  the  Biscuits.  —  A  Con- 
versational Cyclone.  —  A  Malicious  Slander.  —  Matches  that  would  not 
Ignite.  —  "  Good  Luck  to  Yez."  —  Dry  Seasons.  —  The  Norther.  —  A 
Copious  Breeze.  —  Yesterday  and  To-day  in  Texas.  —  The  Stranger  and 
the  Norther.  —  Extraordinary  Fall  of  a  Thermometer.  —  The  Country 
Store.  — The  Post-Office.  — A  Position  of  Alleged  Rest.  — A  Smart 
Aleck.  —  Luke  Sneed,  the  Sceptic.  —  "  Thar  ain't  no  Hell."  —  Pete  White's 
Ghost.  —  News  of  the  Battle.  —  A  Curious  Coincidence  .  .  .  .121 

CHAPTER   XI. 

Absorbing  Cattle  Statistics.  —  Easy  to  get  killed  in  Texas.  —  Effects  of  call- 
ing Mr. a  Liar.  —  The  Man,  Dirks. —  He  wanted  to  be  hung.  —  No 

Malice,  No  Murder.  —  An  Atrocious  Murder.  —  Difference  between  the 
Allegata  and  the  Probata.  —  Self-Defence.  —  An  Alibi.  —  A  Defective  In- 
dictment. —  Temporary  Insanity.  —  Sentenced  to  Death.  —  Reprieved.  — 
He  left  Texas  to  get  hung.  —  The  Tarantula.  —  Association  of  Ideas. — 
Three  Old  Maids.  — The  Tune  that  killed  the  Cow.  — On  an  Irish 
Mountain.  —  Tim  the  Gamekeeper.  —  The  Murderous  Old  Earl.  —  The 
White  Hare.  —  The  Ghost  of  the  Neighboring  Chief.  —  Lost  in  the  Mists 
of  the  Mountain.  —  Reflections  on  my  Sinful  Base-Ball  Days.  —  The 
Moonshiners , 133 

CHAPTER   XII. 

A  Corn-Bread-and-Coffee  Hotel.  —  Eagle  Lake.  —  An  Enterprising  Landlord. 
—  Fooling  with  a  Mortgage.  —  The  Drummer.  —  "  Mine  Got !  Vat  a 
Schmall  Fed  is  Dot."  —  He  wanted  to  "  Schmoke  a  Leetle."  —  The  Rem- 
nant. —  The  Ranch  Del  Rio.  —  Trying  the  Remedies.  —  He  wanted  to  die 
in  Peace.  —  "  Signs  "  on  the  Prairie.  —  Buzzards  as  Detectives.  —  Rounding 


8  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 
Up.  —  Cutting  Out.  —  Branding.  —  More  than  the  Calf-Skin  would  hold. 

—  Throwing  the  Lasso.  —  No  Enterprise  about  a  Cow.  —  Ear-Marks.  — 
The  Doctor  Rounded  Up M9 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

Extent  of  Texas  Cattle  Business.  —  Annual  Exports.  —  Mode  of  Raising 
Cattle.  —  A  Cattle-King.  —  A  Gorgeous  Wedding-Present.  —  John  Timon 
of  San  Patricio.  —  The  Cowboy.  —  The  Texas  Cattle-Drive.  —  Two 
Ounces  of  Truth  to  the  Ton.  —  Sam  Grant,  Captain  of  the  Drive.  —  The 
best  Stock- Range  on  Earth.  —  Sam  Grant's  Story.  —  On  the  Cattle-Trail. 

—  Indians.  —  Frontier  Dick.  —  The  Whiskey  all   gone.  —  Sorry  he   did 

not  skin  the  Savages 163 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

The  Seedy-Looking  Man.  — The  Real-Estate  Agent.  —  Elastic  Tales.  — The 
Immigration  Agent.  —  Eloquent  Mendacity.  —  The  Old  Veteran.  —  Ex- 
traordinary Mortuary  Statistics.  —  Battle-Scarred  Heroes.  —  Frontier  Elo- 
quence.—  Shaking  him  off.  —  A  Drug  in  the  Market.  —  Health  Legend. 

—  A  Shadow  of  Antiquity.  —  Don  Jose  Ignacio  Fuerte  Vejez.  —  Suffer- 
ing for  a  Funeral.  —  Back  from  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  —  Was  it  the 
Padre,  or  the  Devil  ? 178 

CHAPTER  XV. 

We  went  Fishing.  —  The  Profane  General.  —  A  Mexican  Panther.  —  "Dat  ar 
Painter  Nine  Feet  High."  —  A  Joke  on  the  General.  —  Death  of  Mose 
Patterson's  Work-Ox.  —  English  Immigrants.  —  Letters  to  the  Times. — 
A  Briton's  Grievance.  —  Powerful  Imagination.  —  Rainfall  in  Texas. — 
New  Philadelphia.  —  Raising  a  Disturbance  with  a  Plough.  —  "A  Blawst- 
ed  Country."  —  Advice  to  Immigrants.  —  Riding  in  a  Circle.  —  He  "Got 
Hungry."  —  Interviewing  an  Immigrant.  —  The  English  Yeoman.  —  "  Ich 
Verstehe  Sie  Nicht."  —  The  Man  in  Lynn,  Mass.  —  The  Doctor  tampers 
with  the  Immigrant  Business.  —  The  Texas  Navy 191 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

Some  Scraps  of  History.  —  A.D.  1582.  —  Slow  in  Settling  Up.  —  Missions  of 
St.  Francis  of  Assisi.  —  The  Monk  and  the  Soldier.  —  Indies  Reduci- 
dos.  —  Converting  Indians  with  a  Thumb-screw.  —  The  Backsliding  In- 
dian Che-qua-que-ko.  —  The  Spanish  Plan  of  Salvation.  —  Religious 
Zeal  and  Enterprise.  —  A.D.  1690-1715.  —  Founding  of  Missions  in  Texas. 

—  Robert  Cavalier  de  La  Salle.  —  The  French  Colony.  —  Our  Lady  of 
Guadaloupe.  —  A.D.  1800.  —  Scientific  Explorations.  —  Philip  Nolan. — 
An  Empresario.  —  Flush  Times.  —  He  didn't  have  the  Boots.  —  Yearling 
Bulls  the  Circulating-Medium.  —  Ancient  Spanish  Document.  —  The  Mar- 
quis de  Casa  Fuerte 206 


CONTENTS.  9 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

PAGE. 

A.D.  1822.  — A  High  Official.  — Calling  out  the  Militia.  — The  Political 
Chief.  —  Curtailing  Civil  Liberty.  —  The  First  Carpet-Bagger.  —  Tamper- 
ing with  Mexican  Soldiers.  —  The  Germ  of  Texas  Liberty,  Fifteen  Buck- 
shot.—  Declaration  of  Texas  Independence.  —  Cultivating  the  Germ. — 
Military  Events.  —  The  Napoleon  of  the  West.  —  A.D.  1836.  —  The  Re- 
public of  Texas.  —  Texas  Keeping  House.  —  A  Strain  on  the  Imagina- 
tion. —  A  Bad  Settlement.  —  A  Preaching.  —  He  didn't  Swear.  —  The 
Wrong  Bottle.  —  Poisoned.  —  The  Snake-Bite  Remedy.  —  Crossing  the 
Navidad.  —  A  Ludicrous  Act.  —  A  Variety  of  Fences.  —  Fencing  an  Acre 
with  a  Toothpick 218 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Greyhounds.  —  Coursing  Jack-Rabbits.  —  "Give  the  Dogs  a  Start."  —  Law- 
lessness in  Texas.  —  A  Vendetta.  —  The  Reign  of  Terror.  —  John  Wesley 
Hardin.  —  Apologizing  to  the  Widow.  —  "Didn't  know  the  Stranger."  — 

—  The  Suttons  Corralled.  —  Drawing  up  a  Treaty.  —  Wes'  Hardin  inter- 
rupts the  Court.  —  Some  Sacred  Spots.  —  The  Affluent  Editor.  —  Bluffing 
an  Editor.  —  The  Archimedean  Lever.  —  The  Texas  Rangers.  —  Wanted 
to  be  a  Ranger.  —  The  "Cavortin*  Cataclysm  of  the  Calaveras  Canyon." 

—  Strategy.  —  On  the  Trail.  —  The   Long-Range   Roarer  of  the   Sierra 
Mojada.  —  More  Strategy 234 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

A  Big  Bore.  —  "Hold  up  your  Hands."  —  Arrested  for  Horse-Stealing. — 
About  to  be  Hung.  —  The  Bug  from  under  the  Wrong  Chip.  —  Saved. — 
Jim  McSnifter.  —  Luling.  —  A  Railroad  Terminus.  —  A  "  Hoorah  Town." 

—  Characteristic  of  American  Civilization.  —  Mellowing  Effects  of  Time. 

—  Irresistible  Pioneers.  —  Monte  Joe,  the  Gambler.  —  Wore  Crape  on  his 
Hat.  — Little  May.  — The  Child  and  the  Birds.  —  Fairy-Tales.  —  Death 

of  Little  May 249 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Leaving  Luling.  —  The  "Dry  Year."  —  Couldn't  raise  even  an  Umbrella. — 
Climatic  Reveries.  —  The  Weather-Sharp.  —  Grapes.  —  Fort  Bend  County 
Claret.  —  The  Marine  Editor  of  the  Houston  "Age."  —  Effects  of  the 
Claret.  —  "Run  for  Whiskey  or  a  Doctor."  —  A  Consumptive  Cured. — 
"  Old  Sangerfest."  —  Dead  as  vun  Door-Knob."  —  Pickling  the  Remains. 

—  "  Cured,  py  Schingo  !  " 267 

CHAPTER  XXI.  ' 

Approaching  San  Antonio.  —  Mexican  Teamsters,  English  Expletives.  —  Mexi- 
can and  Donkey.  —  Buenos  Dias.  —  Michael  Sullivan's  Spanish  Lesson. — 
"No  Entiendo,  Senor."  — The  Haythen.  — The  "Quaint  Old  City."  — 


10  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Foreign  Aspect  of  San  Antonio.  — The  Man  with  a  Title.  — Royal  Order, 
A.D.  1730.  —  City  of  the  Alamo.  —  The  Alamo.  — The  Aged  Gentleman. 
The  Spot  where  Crockett  fell.  —  Heroic  Deeds 281 

CHAPTER   XXII. 

Old  Spanish  Record.  —  A  Proclamation.  —  The  Old  and  the  New.  —  Licensed 
to  Marry.  —  The  San  Antonio  River.  —  "Walk  your  Horses."  —  Com- 
merce Street.  —  Via  Dolorosa.  —  Streets  built  by  an  Earthquake.  —  I  Sat 
down.  —  The  Legend.  —  The  Padre  making  Fast  Time.  —  Two  Hundred 
Years  Ago.  —  Carrying  off  a  Hole  in  the  Ground 293 

CHAPTER    XXIII. 

The  Dust.  —  Spanish  Profanity.  —  Cursing  a  Steeple  on  a  Church.  —  The  San 
Antonio  River  again.  —  The  Abbe  Domenech.  —  O  Temporal  O  Mores! 
O  Moses!  —  A  Mexican  Jacal.  —  Purple-haired  Saints.  —  The  Tortilla. 

—  The  Tamale.  —  Evil  Association.  —  Frijoles.  —  The  National  Berry. — 
Chastising  the  Earth  with  a  Hoe 307 

CHAPTER   XXIV. 

Cultivating  Revolutions.  —  They  take  any  Thing.  —  Small-Pox.  —  Whistling 
to  their  Corpse.  —  A  Donkey.  — On  the  Jury  that  tried  his  own  Case.  — 
The  Irrigating-Ditches. —  "Ought  to  be  Dammed."  —  St.  Anthony. — 
Jealousy  among  the  Saints.  —  A  Military  Saint.  —  Naming  a  River  .  .  317 

CHAPTER   XXV. 

A  Pre-adamite  Reptile.  —  Ben  Milam.  —  Military  Headquarters.  —  Gen.  Ord. 

—  Gen.  Trevino.  —  Col.  Moca.  —  "I  am  a  whole  Hospital."  —  Ripe  for 
a   Lunatic-Asylum.  —  The   War-Department.  —  Red    Tape. — "  Respect- 
fully Referred."  —  The  San  Antonio  Boy.  —  A  Wicked  Sell       .        .        .328 

CHAPTER   XXVI. 

The  Bull-Fight.  —  Heroic  Matador.  —  Gored  by  a  Splinter.  —  Suffering  to  see 
a  Bull-Fight.  —  Felon. — "•!  had  it  when  I  was  a  Child."  —  "Another 
Stranger  fooled  on  Pelon."  —  Secret  of  Commercial  Success.  —  Sunday 
in  San  Antonio.  —  The  "Garten  Laube  "  on  Puritan  Intolerance.  —  A 
Horse  of  Another  Color.  —  Liver  Encourager 343 

CHAPTER   XXVII. 

Taking  the  Town.  —  The  Hilarious  Cowboy.  —  He  dined  from  Twelve  till 
Three.  —  Dogs.  —  The  No-hair  Dog.— Rats.  — A  Mexican  Mendicant. 

—  Speech   on    Finance.  —  Receiving    a    Blessing.  —  The    Judge.  —  He 
"came  with  the  Cholera."  — The  Candidate  for  Coroner.  — "  Call  him  a 
Liar."  —  A  Grand  Concert.  —  The  Poorhouse.  —  Progress.  —  Carretas      .     354 


CONTENTS.  1 1 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

PAGE. 

A  Device  of  the  Early  Missionaries.  —  Wild  Riding.  —  A  Stranger  named 
McGinnis.  —  "No  Shooting  Aloud." — City  Ordinances  in  1823.  —  The 
Chanting  Priests.  — The  Wicked  Parrot.  — "Ora  Pro  Nobis."  — Jake 
Mullins.  —  Texas  Strawberries.  —  An  Undutiful  Son.  —  Searching  for  his 
Shotgun 368 

CHAPTER   XXIX. 

Adels  Verein.  —  Curious  Colonization  Scheme.  —  Painfully  Exclusive.  —  Af- 
flicted with  a  Pedigree.  —  Lord  Palmerston's  Wiles.  —  English  Policy.  — 
German  Emigration.  —  Prince  Solms  Braunfels  in  Texas.  —  Evidences  of 
Business  Ability.  —  Large  Operation  in  Real  Estate.  —  A  Man  of  Low 
Degree.  —  The  Prince's  Body-Guard.  —  "  Herr  Von  Wrede,  is  that  my 
Army  ? "  —  A  Business  Man.  —  Baron  von  Meusebach.  —  Three  Thousand 
Destitute  Immigrants.  —  Fritznoodle's  Mismanagement.  —  Only  Fifteen 
Hundred  Survivors 379 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

The  Stage-Driver.  —  Stage-Robbery.  —  The  Reporter.  —  Extremes.  —  New 
Braunfels.  —  Phlegmatic  Teutons.  —  Songs  of  Fatherland.  —  "  Dot  Fel- 
low talks  about  Schneider."  —  He  knew  the  Mule.  —  Texas  Stockmen. 
The  Comal  River.  —  Fritz  Schimmelpfenig.  —  A  Man  of  Influence.  — 
Going  back  to  Fatherland.  —  Incredulity  of  the  Burgomaster.  —  Paralyz- 
ing the  Aristocracy.  —  He  brought  his  Bones  back  with  him  .  .  .  388 

CHAPTER   XXXI. 

The  Red-faced  Man.  —  Down  on  Style.  — "  For  Heaven's  Sake,  explain 
Yourself."  —  Back  to  San  Antonio.  —  Wool  Exchange/ — The  Sentimen- 
tal Tourist.  —  Dropping  a  Tear  at  the  Local  Thermopylae.  —  Raining 
Employees  and  Tin  Dinner- Pails.  —  The  Grand  Jury  ought  to  be  indicted. 

—  The  Mission  San  Jose.  —  The  Sword  and  the  Crozier    ....    401 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

A  Prominent  Desperado.  —  Offering  up  a  Victim.  —  Murder.  —  A  Mere  For- 
mality.—  Brown  Bowen.  —  Off  to  the  Hanging.  —  Gonzales.  —  The  Lex- 
ington of  Texas.  —  The  Bald-headed  Man.  —  He  wanted  a  Brandy  Peach. 

—  Interviewing  a  Murderer.  —  An  Excited  Lawyer.  —  "Bring  your  Chil- 
dren around  to  see   me   hung."  —  Narrow  Escape  of  the  Clergyman. — 
Around  the  Scaffold.  —  The  Execution        .    • 414 

CHAPTER   XXXIII. 

A  Barbecue.  —  The  Ancient  Briton.  —  The  Modern  American.  —  The  Sierra 
Mojada  Mines.  —  Gen.  Baylor's  Silver-Mountain.  —  "A  Good  Thing." 

—  Chopping  out  Silver  with  an  Axe.  —  No  Capital  needed.  —  A  Sierra 
Mojada   Sufferer.  —  Unrecognizable.  —  Discovery  of  the   Mines.  —  The 


1 2  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

True  Version.  —  Pursued  by  Indians.  —  Silver  Bullets.  —  Assaying  Mrs. 
Parker's  Aged  Mother.  —  Lost  Mines.  —  Vague  Traditions.  —  His  Impe- 
rial Majesty,  Iturbide.  —  Anastasio  Bustamente.  —  For  the  Public  Good. 

—  The  Spanish  Plan.  —  The  American  Plan 435 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

West  of  San  Antonio.  —  Cooking  a  Biscuit.  —  Awaiting  the  Result.  —  Talk 
about  Indians.  —  The  Doctor's  Threats.  —  Discretion.  —  Talking  Ollen- 
dorfs  Spanish  Exercises.  —  A  Disappointment.  —  Only  a  Greaser.  —  An 
Early  Settler.  —  "Wasn't  raised  Civilized."  —  "Want  to  buy  a  Coon?" 

—  "Owin'to  how  You  was  Raised."  —  "Whiskey?     I  Should  Say  So." 

—  "Stand  off  Twenty   Yards."  —  Sheep-Raising.  —  Texas   Shepherd. — 

A  Sheep  Camp.  —  Sheep  Statistics.  —  A  Goose-Ranch       ....    453 

CHAPTER   XXXV. 

The  Sewing-Machine  Agent.  —  The  Mesquite-Tree.  —  Animated  Nature. — 
The  Doctor's  Deadly  Aim.  —  The  Doctor  attempts  a  Witticism.  —  The 
Late  Fratricidal  Struggle.  —  Texas  during  the  War.  —  The  Reporter's 
\Var- Experience.  —  An  Inhuman  Order.  —  The  Hireling  Foe.  —  Not 
Much  of  a  Patriot.  —  Battle  of  Norris's  Bridge.  —  The  Sanguinary  Field. 

—  No  Subject  to  joke  about.  —  "  Freezing  his  Damned  Rebel  Legs  off." 

—  Scouting  around  the  Truth.  —  Precipitating  the  Conflict.  —  Confederate 
Rations.  —  Federal  Relations.  —  Weeping  over  an  Empty  Sardine-Box     .     471 

CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

Picket-Duty.  —  He  had  No  Friends.  —  "It's  Worse  than  a  Coyote."  —  An 
Historic  Plug  of  Tobacco.  —  The  Carnage  at  Norris's  Bridge.  —  Shelling. 

—  A  Surprise.  —  "Deploy  to  the  Right."  —  " Disperse,  you  Blamed  Fool." 

—  "  Hurrah  for  the  Southern  Confederacy  !  "  —  He  kept  the  Bridge.  — 
Bad  Old  Men 489 

CHAPTER   XXXVII. 

The  Indian  Country.  —  Big-Foot  Wallace.  — "Injuns  is  Injuns.*'  — The  Un- 
tutored Savage.  — Commercial  Relations.  —  Wicked  Partners.  —  Travel- 
ling at  Night.  —  Dividing  the  Responsibility.  —  The  Aboriginal  Tramp. — 
Satisfied  with  Half  a  Loaf.  — Friendship  of  Jonathan  and  Pythias.— 
Unprofitable  Neighbors.  —  Terra  Desconocido.— Falling  Back. —  Vio- 
lent Horseback  Exercise.  —  The  Heretic  Gringo.  — Riding  a  Thousand 
Miles  in  Ten  Days.  — Orders  in  Advance.  — A  Business-Card.  —  Not 
like  an  Indian.  —  Policy  of  the  United  States.  — Indian  Agents.  —  Beef 
and  Blankets.  —  A  Bare  Margin.  —  Misdirected  Compassion  .  .  .  502 

CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

Indian  Deviltries.  —  Guilt  of  Reservation  Indians.  — Raids.  — No  Sympathy. 

—  Iniquitous  Management.  —  Abstract  G.  —  List  of  Killed.  —  A  Cry  for 
Help.  —  Murder  of    Gen.   Byrne.  —  Our   Paternal   Government.  —  New 


CONTENTS.  13 

PAGE. 

Posts  needed.  —  The  Soldier  who  lost  his  Indians.  —  Apache  John.  — 
"Heap  Hungry,  Heap  Die."— Gen.  Sheridan's  Report.  —  Heroic  but 
Hopeless  Defence.  —  Document  E.  —  Houses  filled  with  Sorrow.  — 
Thieves  and  Cut-Throats.  —  Desolated  Homes.  —  "  Marauding  Villains." 

—  Crying  for  Justice 519 

CHAPTER    XXXIX. 

Overworked  Mexican  Soldiers.  —  Duck-Hunting.  —  Old  Colorado.  —  Two 
Hundred  Thousand  Cattle  Stolen.  —  Congressional  Investigations.  — 
Notes  on  Stock- Raising.  —  Helplessness  of  the  Mexican  Government.  — 
National  Pride.  —  Talk  about  War.  —  Dropping  the  Subject.  —  Action  of 
the  United  States.  —  What  caused  "Great  Irritation."  —  United-States 
Diplomacy.  —  Mild  Language  by  Hamilton  Fish.  —  English  Diplomacy. 

—  Strong  Language  by  Earl  Russell 535 

CHAPTER   XL. 

Rip  Ford  and  the  Goat-Claim.  —  Goats  multiplying  Unreasonably.  —  "  Texas 
won't  hold  her  Goats."  —  Figuring  on  Mules.  —  The  Rio  Grande.  —  A 
Crooked  Story.  —  Involuntary  Ablutions.  —  Full  of  Whiskey  and  Party 
Pride.  —  A  Citizen  of  Two  Countries.  —  Tying  Volunteers  with  a  Rope. 
Pronunciamentos.  —  Levying  Prestimas.  —  How  Revolutions  are  started. 
Mexican  Bravado.  —  The  Reporter's  Fanfaronade.  —  A  Revolutionary 
Editor.  —  The  Reporter  interviews  Himself 550 

CHAPTER   XLI. 

Illiterate  Officers.  —  Mexican  Vouchers.  —  Satisfactory  Evidence  of  Death. — 
The  Santa  Fe  Expedition.  —  Cutting  off  his  own  Ears.  —  The  Reporter 
in  Arms  again.  —  Real  Hard  Services.  —  A  Military  Necessity.  —  Grim- 
visaged  War.  —  Luxury  of  Sleep.  —  Wild  Horses.  —  Mustangers.  —  Buf- 
falo-Hunting. —  The  Mexican  Pastor.  —  An  Aristocratic  Bull-Whacker. 

—  The  Tramp ..569 

CHAPTER  XLII. 

The  Reporter  again  to  the  Front.  —  A  Hog-Story.  —  A  Suspicious  Farmer. 

—  Insulting  a  Sacred  Cause.  —  Assuming  an  Offensive  Position.  —  Insult 
added  to  Injury.  —  The  Distinguished  Lawyer's  Story.  —  The  Colonel  of 
the   33d.  —  Spare-Ribs.  —  An   Old   Patriarch.  —  Smoot,  the  Ex   Stage- 
Driver.  —  Operations   in   Pork.  —  Pursued.  —  Arrested.  —  Released.  —  A 
Base  Insinuation 590 

CHAPTER  XLIII. 

Mineral  Resources  of  Texas.  —  The  Journalist.  —  "He  tried  his  Editorials  on 
Me."  —  Profoundly  Exasperating.  —  Wishing  for  Death.  —  Cutting  off  a 
Dog's  Tail  by  Inches.  —  Novel  Mode  of  disseminating  Intelligence. — 
A  Heavy  Editorial.  —  An  Excited  Patron.  —  "Stop  my  Paper."  —  A  Cam- 


14  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

paign  Document.  —  The  Post-Trader.  —  A  Change  of  Administration.  — 
The  Farmer  and  the  Watermelon.  —  An  Agricultural  Address.  —  A  Bank- 
rupt Newspaper.  —  The  Daily  Bugle 605 

CHAPTER   XLIV. 

The  Old  Hunter. —  The  Llano  Estacado.  —  The  Cruel  Mexican  Maiden.— 
At  the  Presidio.  —  Bracing  up  the  Old  Hunter.  —  An  Absurdity.  —  The 
Flask.  —  The  Mustang  Spring.  —  A  Very  Clever  Gentleman.  —  A  Tem- 
porary Loan. —  A  Permanent  Investment.  —  Purchasing-Power  of  $2.50  .  619 

CHAPTER   XLV. 

Shaping  our  Course  for  Austin.  —  A  Camel  Ranch.  —  The  Cactus.  —  End  of 
our  Ride.  —  Arrival  in  Austin.  —  Parting  with  our  Ponies.  —  An  Affect- 
ing Scene.  —  The  Capital  of  the  State  of  Texas.  —  A  Miracle  of  Archi- 
tectural Absurdity.  —  The  Alamo  Monument.  —  The  Legislative  Halls. — 
Oil-Paintings.  —  George  Washington.  —  Sam  Houston.  —  Davy  Crockett .  632 

CHAPTER  XLVI. 

A  Sweet  Singer.  —  A  Good  Grammarian.  —  Meteoric  Genius.  —  Gems  of 
Fancy.  —  Measuring  Poetry  by  the  Bushel.  —  Shakspeare  Discounted.  — 
Fifteen-cents-on-the-Dollar  Residences.  —  Victoria  R.  —  Treaty  of  Annex- 
ation. —  Legislative  Dignity.  —  Parliamentary  Tactics  ....  648 

CHAPTER   XLVII. 

The  Imported  Dog.  — Thrall's  History  of  Texas.  —  Immigration.  —  Kind  of 
Immigrant  Texas  needs.  —  What  Texas  offers  the  Immigrant.  —  Solid 
Facts.  —  Useful  Truths.  —  The  Future  of  the  State.  —  Leaving  Texas.  — 
Finis .660 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    I. 


^4  €   CALLED  him  a  desperado 

\J     and  a  gambler. 
v^/          They  said  that  he  "  al- 
ways went  heeled,  toted 
a  derringer,  and  was  a  bad  crowd 
generally."    It  was  rumored  that 
he  had  killed  five,  eight,  some 
said   ten  men   during  his   short 
career ;  yet  no  one  would  have 
thought,    to    look     at  the    well- 
dressed    young    man,    mild     of 
manner,   and  careful  as   to   the 
parting  of  his  hair,  that  he  was  the  fire-eater 
he  was  reputed  to  be. 

He  was  as  unlike  the  gory  desperado  of  "the  villain-still- 
pursued-her"  style  of  literature  as  a  divinity  student  is  unlike 
the  life-insurance  agent  of  real  life.  Tottering  under  the 
responsibility  of  a  copious  diamond  breastpin,  and  carrying  a 

15 


i6 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


small  cane  in  his  gloved  hand,  he  might  have  been  taken  for  a 
hotel  clerk,  were  it  not  for  his  conciliatory  and  gentlemanly 
manners. 

When  Phil  Parker  was  pointed  out  to  strangers  as  a  gam- 
bler, and  a  man  who  had  checked  several  of  his  acquaintances 
through  to  the  other  world,  it  was  always  added  that  he  was  a 
gentleman  for  all  that,  and  was  never  known  to  take  an  unfair 

advantage  of  any  of  his 
victims,  nor  to  go  back 
on  a  friend. 

This  high-toned  and 
honorable  desperado 
"  operated  "  in  one  of 
the  inland  cities  of  Tex- 
as two  years  ago.  He 
was  one  of  the  chief 
features  of  the  place. 
He  was  a  character  so 
associated  with  the  city, 
that  to  speak  of  it  with- 
o  u  t  mentioning  Phil 
Parker  would  be  like 
writing  a  description  of 
Sheffield  without  allud- 
ing to  the  matter  of 
cutlery. 

A  stranger  stopping 


r 


EIGHTEEN-CARAT    DESPERADO. 


a  few  days  in  the  city 
where  Parker  lived, 
would  be  apt  to  leave 
with  the  impression  that  the  place  consisted  of  a  wretchedly 
poor  jail,  a  very  handsome  court-house,  and  of  Phil  Parker  and 
several  thousand  other  inhabitants. 

Unlike  most  professional  gamblers,  he  was  seldom  "broke." 
When,  in  the  language  of  the  fraternity,  he  "struck  it  rich," 
and  was  in  funds,  he  would  sometimes  celebrate  the  occasion 
by  a  free  use  of  the  flowing  bowl.  This  made  him  enthusiastic 
on  the  subject  of  shooting ;  his  enthusiasm  culminating  in  a 


AN  EIGHTEEN-CARAT  DESPERADO.  17 

visit  to  some  friend's  saloon,  where  he  would  exhibit  his  pro- 
ficiency in  the  use  of  the  revolver  by  shattering  mirrors,  lamp- 
chimneys,  bottles,  and  other  fragile  articles,  concluding  with 
the  laconic  remark  to  the  bar-keeper,  "Them's  mine:  put  'em 
on  the  slate." 

His  right  to  indulge  in  such  mild  eccentricities  was  seldom 
disputed,  for  two  reasons, — first,  to  do  so  would  be  a  risk  of 
the  class  that  insurance  companies  term  extra-hazardous ;  and, 
secondly,  Phil  always  dropped  in  after  he  became  sober,  and 
paid  for  all  the  damage  done.  On  several  occasions  the  glass 
of  every  lamp  on  the  square  was  shattered  by  pistol-bullets 
fired  by  some  person  or  persons  unknown. 

In  connection  with  this,  it  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  that,  on  every 
one  of  these  occasions,  Phil  Parker  was  in  town,  and  also,  that, 
strange  to  say,  the  intelligent  and  ever-vigilant  policeman  had 
just  stepped  around  the  corner  to  obtain  a  clew  from  a  man 
regarding  a  case  that  was  being  "worked  up"  by  that  lynx- 
eyed  officer  (the  man  wore  an  apron,  and  furnished  the  clew  in 
a  tumbler).  Thus  it  was  that  the  unfortunate  absence  of  the 
peace-officer  at  the  critical  moment  prevented  him  from  see- 
ing or  arresting  the  offender. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  very  much  respected  wher- 
ever he  was  known,  especially  by  the  police. 

Mat  Woodlief,  a  noted  gambler,  once  kept  a  saloon  in  -one 
of  the  little  railroad  towns  on  the  Sunset  Route.  One  night 
a  big  blustering  Texan  came  into  the  saloon  with  some  friends. 
After  forming  himself  into  a  hollow  square  around  eight  or  ten 
able-bodied  glasses  of  whiskey,  he  became  boisterous,  and  be- 
gan exhuming  old  grievances  about  the  war,  and  its  conse- 
quences to  him  in  the  loss  of  his  plantation  and  negroes  (he 
never  owned  a  slave  in  his  life,  and  the  only  connection  he 
ever  had  with  a  plantation  was  through  a  hoe-handle).  He 
abused  the  Yankees,  calling  them  liars  and  thieves,  and  using 
toward  them  all  manner  of  vile  epithets.  He  said,  "  I  can  make 
the  biggest  man  of  them  eat  dirt,  /  can.  I'm  hell  on  the  Wa- 
bash,  /  am.  The  durned  body-snatchers,  they  took  all  of  my 
niggers  ;  but  I'll  get  even  with  'em  yet.  There  ain't  one  of 
them  man  enough  to  stand  up  with  me  in  a  fair  fight.  I  just 


i8 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


want  one  of  them  to  contradict  me,  an'  I'll  bore  holes  in  him 
till  he  can't  hold  water.  I  wish  one  of  the  cowardly  coyotes 
would  come  along  now,  till  I'd  carve  out  the  material  for  a 
funeral.  I'm  just  pining  away  for  a  fight.  I'm  a  raw-hide 
Texan,  /  am  ;  but  I  can  lick  daylight  out'n  the  biggest  Yankee 
ever  grew  in  New  England." 

During  this  harangue  Phil  Parker,  who  had  been  playing 
a  quiet  game  of  poker  in  the  back-room,  appeared  upon  the 
scene.  He  was  dressed  in  black,  a  linen  duster  on  his  left 
arm,  and  a  silk  hat  of  the  latest  style  perched  jauntily  over 
his  right  eyebrow.  Sucking  the  end  of  an  ivory-headed  walk- 
ing-cane, this  eighteen-carat 
desperado  sauntered  up  to  the 
bellicose  Texan. 

"  My  friend,"  said  he,  "  I'm  a 
Yankee  from  Massachusetts  : 
I'm  a  harmless  and  inoffensive 
drummer,  —  suaviter  in  modo, 
sed  fortiter  in  re,  as  we  say  in 
the  classics,  —  and  it  is  with 

, 9  pain  that  I  have  heard  you  ven- 

i          /^i^l^r^f     l  tilate  your  opinion  as  you  have 

l/lj[^~^'1  j  /     just  now  done.     I  do  not  like 

to  hurt  your  feelings,  sir :  but  my 
duty,  under  the  circumstances, 
compels  me  to  tell  you  that  you 
are  a  coward ;  my  regard  for  truth  causes  me  to  remark  that 
you  are  a  liar ;  and  my  wish  for  a  candid  interchange  of  com- 
pliments prompts  me  to  state  that  I  do  not  think  you  are  brave 
enough  to  kill  a  worm,  nor  that  you  have  the  courage  to  quar- 
rel with  a  crippled  flea." 

The  warlike  mutilator  of  Yankees  was  speechless  with  sur- 
prise. The  temerity  of  the  man  from  Massachusetts  horrified 
him. 

As  Parker  concluded  his  remarks  with  a  bow,  the  big  Texan 
was  boiling  over  with  suppressed  rage,  and  attempted  to  draw 
his  pistol ;  but,  before  his  hand  touched  the  stock,  a  bullet  from 
Parker's  six-shooter  clipped  the  lobe  off  his  ear,  and  the  weapon 


THE    BELLICOSE    TEXAN. 


Aft  AWFUL  ACCIDENT.  19 

itself  descended  on  his  head,  and  stretched  him  senseless  on 
the  floor.  Parker,  assisted  by  one  of  his  friends,  placed  the 
unconscious  man  in  a  hack,  drove  him  to  a  drug-store,  had 
a  doctor  sew  up  the  wounded  ear,  and  instructing  the  druggist 
to  "tell  that  blowhard  that  he  has  been  fooling  with  Phil 

Parker  of ,  who  has  marked  him  with  his  private  ear-mark," 

returned  to  finish  his  game  in  the  back-room  of  Woodlief  s 
saloon. 

Two  years  after  the  date  of  the  occurrence  described  above, 
I  spent  six  days  in  a  little  town  in  one  of  the  New-England 
States  with  Phil  Parker.  I  did  not  know  then,  nor  for  some 
time  afterwards,  who  he  was.  During  those  six  days  I  knew 
him  only  as  "  the  man  from  Texas." 

When  I  first  met  "the  man  from  Texas,"  he  wore  a  wide- 
brimmed  black  sombrero,  ornamented  with  a  silver  cord  and 
tassel.  His  long  boots  of  alligator-skin  reached  to  his  knees ; 
and  between  the  crown  of  the  one  and  the  soles  of  the  others 
there  was  six  feet  two  inches  of  a  man  whose  equal  was  not 
in  Warren  County  on  the  day  the  train  went  through  the 
bridge.  Before  the  accident,  he  was  sitting  in  the  smoking-car, 
with  his  feet  out  of  the  window.  His  coat  was  off,  and  he  was 
smoking  cigarettes  ;  the  train  rushing  along  at  the  rate  of  thirty 
miles  an  hour,  panting  through  cuttings,  rattling  over  trestles, 
and  shooting  around  curves,  like  a  house  on  fire.  It  was  a  sad 
accident.  The  alliterative  head-lines  in  the  newspapers  next 
morning  spoke  of  it  as,  — 

AN  AWFUL  ACCIDENT! 


DIRE   AND   DREADFUL   DISASTER  ! 

BROKEN   BRIDGE  ! 

ELEVEN   LIVES   LOST  ! 

PARALYZED   PASSENGERS  ! 

BRUISED   AND    BLEEDING   BRAKEMEN  ! 

ETC.,   ETC.,    ETC. 


The  blame  was  widely  distributed.  The  directors,  the  engine- 
driver,  and  the  rotten  timbers,  —  all  had  their  share  of  censure ; 
but  the  praise  was  all  for  one  man.  He  it  was  who  carried  the 


20  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

scalded  and  disfigured  engine-driver  up  on  the  bank,  getting 
the  skin  burnt  off  his  right  hand  while  doing  so.  Up  to  his 
neck  in  water,  he  wrenched  the  window  out  of  a  car,  and  saved 
an  old  lady's  life.  He  tore  handkerchiefs  into  strips,  and 
bound  up  wounded  arms  and  legs.  He  organized  those  who 
were  unhurt,  and  directed  their  efforts  in  rescuing  the  more 
unfortunate  passengers  ;  and,  after  all  who  were  alive  had  been 
placed  out  of  further  danger,  he  rushed  into  the  burning 
express-car,  and  saved  a  dog  that  was  chained,  and  in  danger 
of  burning  to  death.  He  procured  restoratives  from  the  neigh- 
boring farmhouses,  and  staid  with  the  people  until  the  relief- 
train  arrived.  He  did  the  physical  labor  of  ten  men,  though 
suffering  from  a  burned  hand  and  a  crushed  foot.  His  praise 
resounded  through  all  the  valley  that  day.  In  the  excitement 
of  the  moment,  no  one  thought  to  ask  his  name.  We  spoke 
of  him  as  "the  man  from  Texas." 

His  injuries  compelled  him  to  remain  over  at  the  next  town. 
With  saddle-bags  on  his  arm,  he  passed  out  of  the  depot,  mod- 
estly bowing  in  response  to  the  hearty  cheers  from  those  he 
had  assisted  in  their  hour  of  need. 

I  stopped  in  the  same  town  for  the  purpose  of  having  some 
slight  injuries  which  I  had  received  attended  to.  "The  man 
from  Texas  "  and  I  stopped  at  the  same  hotel.  We  soon  became 
acquainted ;  but,  while  he  staid  in  the  town,  no  one  found  out 
what  his  name  was.  On  the  hotel  register  he  had  written  what 
the  passengers  on  the  wrecked  train  called  him,  —  "  the  man 
from  Texas." 

I  was  very  much  interested  by  his  tales  of  frontier  life. 
Without  a  trace  of  boastfulness  in  his  tone,  he  spoke  of  his 
twelve  thousand  head  of  horned  cattle,  his  herd  of  eight  hun- 
dred horses,  and  his  army  of  vaqueros  and  herders  who  attended 
to  his  stock.  He  described  the  pleasures  of  hunting  antelope 
and  buffalo  on  the  plains,  of  landing  four-pound  trout  on  the 
banks  of  the  beautiful  San  Marcos,  and  of  shooting  alligators 
in  the  bayous  and  lagoons  of  Eastern  Texas.  He  gave  me  a 
cordial  invitation  to  "come  and  stay  a  month  or  two"  at  his 
ranch  on  the  Rio  Frio. 

I  had  purposed  taking  a  holiday  of  six  months,  and  spending 


LEAVING  NEW  YORK.  21 

it  in  travel  through  Europe  ;  but  I  changed  my  intention  when 
I  had  listened  for  a  few  hours  to  descriptions  of  life  in  the  Lone 
Star  State  from  the  lips  of  "the  man  from  Texas."  And  when 
he  spoke  of  the  health  to  be  found  on  the  Western  prairies,  the 
clear  air,  the  pure  water,  and  the  beneficial  influence  of  exer- 
cise derived  from  a  travelling  copartnership  with  a  Texas  or 
Mexican  pony,  I  at  once  decided  to  change  the  intended  route 
of  travel,  and  instead  of  walking,  knapsack  on  back,  over  the 
beaten  tracks  of  Europe,  to  take  a  trip  through  the  compara- 
tively unknown  wilds  of  Texas  on  board  of  a  Mexican  mus- 
tang. 

"  The  man  from  Texas "  did  not  tell  me  his  name ;  but  he 
described  the  location  of  his  ranch,  and  told  me  how  to  reach 
it.  I  accepted  his  invitation  ;  and,  although  I  met  him  after- 
wards, I  never  saw  his  ranch.  I  subsequently  discovered  that 
it  was  identical  with  the  location  of  his  castle  in  Spain. 

The  result  of  my  acceptance  of  his  invitation  was  to  me 
three  months  of  a  vagabond  life  on  the  western  frontier  of 
Texas,  thirteen  weeks  of  Bedouin-like  meanderings  among  the 
cattle  on  a  thousand  hills,  out  of  reach  of  the  newsboy's  cry, 
and  far  from  the  sound  of  the  street-car  bells. 

I  left  New  York  on  the  fourth  day  of  May,  on  board  the 
steamship  "  City  of  San  Antonio,"  and  arrived  in  Galveston  on 
the  I4th  of  the  same  month. 

Galveston,  as  seen  from  the  deck  of  the  steamboat,  is  a 
strange  and  unique  city.  It  is  built  on  an  island  of  sand,  no 
part  of  which  is  more  than  six  feet  above  high-water  mark. 

As  the  sun  went  down  below  the  low  coast-line,  we  sighted 
the  city,  which  lay  apparently  on  the  bosom  of  the  placid  waters 
of  the  bay.  Its  towers,  domes,  and  minarets,  glittering  in  the 
last  rays  of  the  setting  sun,  would  have  reminded  one  very 
much  of  Venice,  if  Galveston  had  had  any  towers,  domes,  and 
things. 

The  short  twilight  gave  place  to  clear  moonlight,  as  we 
steamed  up  the  bay.  Looking  across  at  the  city  cradled  on 
the  bosom  of  the  deep,  with  the  silver  radiance  of  the  moon- 
light bathing  her  white  buildings  and  sandy  streets  in  a  flood 
of  tender  light,  there  is  a  weird  and  mystic  influence  in  the 


22  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

scene :  a  sort  of  baseless-fabric-of-a-vision  feeling  comes  over 
the  beholder ;  and,  if  there  is  a  sentimental  spark  in  his  nature, 
he  "drops  into  poetry." 

Galveston  is  the  chief  port  of  Texas,  and  is  in  communica- 
tion, by  steam  and  sail  ships,  with  all  parts  of  the  commercial 
world.  The  island  on  which  the  city  is  built  is  some  thirty 
miles  long,  and  from  one  to  two  miles  in  breadth.  It  is  sepa- 
rated from  the  mainland  by  a  bay  several  miles  wide,  affording 
a  safe  harbor  for  light-draught  ships.  Railroad  bridges  built 
on  piles  connect  the  island  with  the  mainland.  These  bridges 
are  each  one  mile  in  length.  Galveston  Island  is  celebrated 
for  its  beach,  which  runs  the  full  length  of  the  island  on  the 
ocean  side.  When  the  tide  is  out,  it  is  one  of  the  finest  drives 
in  the  United  States.  So  smooth  and  hard  is  it,  that  the  im- 
press of  a  horse's  hoof  is  barely  discernible. 

Except  in  the  business  part  of  the  city,  almost  all  the  houses 
are  built  of  wood, — light,  airy  structures,  painted  white,  with 
verandas  and  galleries  (usually  on  the  south  side),  where,  in  the 
summer-time,  the  inhabitants  sit  in  the  cool  of  the  evening, 
enjoying  the  balmy  Gulf-breezes  and  the  perfume  of  the  olean- 
der and  orange  trees. 

The  oleander  grows  to  a  height  of  twenty  feet,  and  many  of 
the  streets  are  lined  with  them  on  both  sides.  The  orange 
grows  and  matures  in  most  of  the  gardens  ;  and,  in  the  fall,  the 
rich  golden  fruit,  with  its  tropical  suggestions,  adds  much  to 
the  attractions  of  the  place. 

A  more  cosmopolitan  population  than  that  of  Galveston  does 
not  exist  anywhere  in  the  world.  All  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
and  the  islands  of  the  seas,  are  represented  on  her  streets. 
The  musical  nobleman  of  sunny  Italy,  and  the  deceptive  Mon- 
golian, are  as  much  at  home  as  the  festive  Milesian  or  solid 
Teuton  ;  and,  for  diversity  of  languages,  a  Galveston  street- 
corner  crowd  could  beat  the  builders  of  the  Tower  of  Babel 
in  one  inning,  with  several  languages  to  spare. 

The  following  is  from  a  Texas  paper :  — 

"  The  stranger  from  a  colder  clime  and  less  flowery  land,  who  visits  Gal- 
veston in  early  spring,  and  rambles  about  that  portion  of  the  city  devoted 
to  private  residences,  is  involuntarily  thrown  into  ecstasies.  Here  he  in- 


PIRATE  LAFITTE. 


hales  the  perfume  of  the  orange-blossom,  and  gazes  in  rapture  upon  the 
never-ending  oleander.  Here  are  vine-covered  bowers  in  the  full  glory  of 
verdure,  and  walks  glittering  with  the  beautiful  and  myriad-hued  shells 
gathered  from  the  beach.  Here  are  flowers  so  rich  in  hue  and  variety  as  to 
awaken  dreams  of  the  Orient." 

Now,  I  believe  every  word  of  the  above  to  be  true,  not  even 
excepting  the  "ecstasies;"  but  why  did  he  not  add,  "Here  are 
back-yards  and  alleys,  whose  exuberant  perfumes  and  exhala- 
tions are,  to  say  the  least  of  them,  painfully  Oriental "  ?  There 
is  nothing  improves  fiction 
so  much  as  a  little  season- 
ing of  truth. 

It  is  claimed  that  the 
Board  of  Health  uses  every 
precaution  to  keep  the  city 
clean,  even  going  to  such 
extremes  as  to  use  disin- 
fectants to  prevent  the  dead 
letters  at  the  post-office 
from  emitting  an  offensive 
odor. 

In  1771  Galveston  Island 
was  the  rendezvous  and 
headquarters  of  the  world- 
renowned  pirate  Lafitte,  and 
his  followers.  It  was  then 
called  Campeachy  Island. 
On  this  lonely  shore  the 
gentle  buccaneer  garnered  his  prizes,  buried  his  treasures,  and 
despatched  his  prisoners.  To  the  philanthropist  of  to-day  it  is 
gratifying  to  learn,  from  the  pages  of  history,  that  Jean  Lafitte 
never  roasted  a  prisoner  when  a  rope  or  shotgun  was  handy ; 
and  it  must  have  soothed  the  last  moments  of  many  of  his 
victims  to  know  that  he,  the  Bold  Rover  of  the  Spanish  Main, 
was  "a  man  of  polite  and  easy  manners,  dressed  in  green  uni- 
form and  otter-skin  cap." 

It  has  been  said  that  Lafitte  was  a  man  of  poetic  tempera- 
ment, little  versed  in  the  world's  guile  and  craftiness.     I  think 


PIRATE  LAFITTE. 


24  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

this  truth  is  strongly  padded  with  fiction,  and  that  the  state- 
ment is  not  strengthened  by  the  following  facts  :  — 

When  the  British  were  preparing  to  attack  New  Orleans, 
Commodore  Percy,  commanding  the  English  naval  forces,  sent 
the  war-brig  "  Sophia  "  for  Lafitte,  and  offered  him  a  commis- 
sion in  the  navy  and  one  thousand  pounds  sterling  for  his 
assistance  and  co-operation  in  the  attack  on  New  Orleans. 
Lafitte  pocketed  the  bullion,  and  said  he  would  call  around  in 
the  morning,  and  inaugurate  hostilities.  In  fact,  he  committed 
himself  so  far  as  to  intimate  that  he  would  "  make  it  devilish 
hot  in  New  Orleans."  That  night,  however,  Lafitte  called  on 
the  Governor  of  Louisiana,  and  offered  his  services  against  the 
British,  in  consideration  of  a  full  pardon  for  all  his  past  offences 
against  the  United  States.  The  offer  was  accepted ;  and  Lafitte 
and  his  followers  intimidated  the  British  with  such  success  that 
they  left  so  utterly  beaten,  that  this  the  first  "  great  fraud  in 
Louisiana  "  was  never  even  investigated.  It  was  left  for  the 
historian  to  record  the  fact,  that  bulldozing  is  not  a  thing  of 
yesterday,  but  an  institution  of  the  State,  venerable  with  the 
mildews  of  antiquity. 

I  have  always  thought  it  a  pity  that  Lafitte  was  born  before 
his  time.  What  a  fine  field  there  would  be  for  his  disinter- 
ested statesmanship  in  the  halls  of  the  United-States  Congress 
to-day !  I  know  he  would  feel  so  much  at  home  among  the 
many  other  th  —  thrifty  representatives. 

The  city  of  Houston,  fifty  miles  from  Galveston,  situated  at 
the  head  of  navigation  on  Buffalo  Bayou,  is  a  commercial  rival 
of  Galveston.  Each  tries  to  supplant  the  other  in  the  affec- 
tions of  the  country  merchants,  and  in  securing  the  trade  of 
the  interior.  There  is  an  amount  of  jealousy  exhibited  in  a 
small  way  by  the  inhabitants  of  both  cities  ;  and  the  calling  of 
each  other  names,  such  as  "sand-crabs"  and  "mud-turtles,"  is 
one  of  the  harmless  ways  in  which  they  ventilate  their  spleen. 

Sometimes  they  take  a  more  practical  way  of  evincing  their 
fraternal  feelings,  and  nine  sand-crabs  go  up  to  the  Bayou  City, 
and,  with  an  equal  number  of  mud-turtles,  contest  the  national 
game.  The  appearance  of  the  contestants  next  morning  is 
not  always  unconnected  with  sticking-plaster ;  but,  as  the 


YELLOW-FEVER    GERMS.  25 

wounds  are  seldom  fatal,  these  games  are  of  little  practical 
benefit  to  the  community. 

There  is,  both  in  Galveston  and  Houston,  a  society  for  the 
promotion  of  commercial  relations  with  the  interior,  called  the 
Board  of  Health.  The  Board  hibernates  during  cold  weather, 
but  comes  out  fresh  and  ready  for  work  in  the  summer. 

The  duty  of  these  Boards  is  to  find  yellow-fever  germs.  This 
is  the  way  they  go  about  it  :  — 

Some  time  during  the  month  of  June,  the  Board  of  Health  at 
Galveston  receives  information  that  a  man  has  arrived  at  New 
Orleans,  who,  within  twenty-one  days,  has  drunk  a  cup  of  cof- 
fee, the  bean  from  which  the  coffee  was  made  having  been 
imported  from  Rio,  where  yellow-fever  was  epidemic  last  year. 
As  there  is  cause  to  fear  that  a  germ  may  have  concealed 
itself  in  a  bean,  a  sort  of  stowaway  germ,  and  conveyed  itself 
into  the  man's  stomach,  and  in  consequence  of  the  danger  of 
infection,  the  president  of  the  Board  of  Health  of  Galveston 
telegraphs  to  the  Board  of  Health  at  New  Orleans,  stating  that 
next  day  Galveston  will  quarantine  against  New  Orleans. 

The  people  of  Galveston  regret  the  necessity  that  compels 
them  to  use  these  stringent  measures ;  but  the  health  of  the 
State  must  be  cared  for,  even  though  it  should  prevent  the 
interior  merchants  from  receiving  goods  from  New  Orleans, 
and  cause  them  to  patronize  the  Galveston  market.  The  citi- 
zens of  Galveston  believe  in  the  proverb  that  says  "Preven- 
tion is  better  than  cure." 

The  Galveston  Board  of  Health  telegraphs  to  the  Board  of 
Health  at  New  Orleans  every  day,  and  sometimes  oftener,  and 
the  New-Orleans  Board  of  Health  answers  back.  This  is  the 
style  of  telegrams  :  — 

GALVESTON,  TEX.,  Aug.  4,  188-. 
To  President  Board  of  Health,  New  Orleans. 

It  is  rumored  that  there  are  three  cases  of  yellow-fever  in  your  city. 
How  is  it  ? 

PRESIDENT  GALVESTON  BOARD  OF  HEALTH. 

Then  the  president  of  the  New-Orleans  Board  of  Health 
answers,  and  says,  — 


26  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"The  health  of  New  Orleans  never  better;  not  a  single  case  of  fever  in 
the  city." 

They  keep  this  up  for  several  months. 

It  is  said  that  the  Galveston  Board  has  its  telegram-blanks 
lithographed  by  the  hundred,  leaving  the  number  of  "rumored" 
cases  blank,  so  that,  when  they  want  to  send  off  a  telegram  for 
the  purpose  of  assuaging  public  anxiety,  they  have  nothing  to 
do  but  to  fill  in  the  numeral  according  to  the  size  of  the  rumor. 

As  soon  as  the  Galveston  Board  gets  down  to  steady  work 
sending  off  telegrams,  the  president  of  the  Houston  Board 
begins  to  think  that  he  had  better  be  doing  something  to  earn 
his  salary  and  the  affection  of  the  citizens  of  Houston.  So  he 
discovers"  that  on  board  of  a  schooner  that  sailed  for  New 
York,  calling  at  New  Orleans,  and  now  bound  for  Galveston, 
there  is  a  passenger  who  sat  at  the  same  table  with  the  man 
who  drank  the  germ-impregnated  coffee  ten  days  before,  and 
who  saw  the  man  drink  the  coffee  without  any  sugar  or  other 
disinfectant. 

The  members  of  the  Board  of  Health  at  Houston  meet,  and 
edit  a  telegram,  which  they  forward  to  the  Board  at  Galveston. 
The  telegram  states,  that  if  the  Galveston  Board  allows  the 
schooner  to  come  into  port,  or  discharge  her  cargo  or  passen- 
gers, Houston  will  immediately  quarantine  Galveston.  The 
Houstonians  dislike  very  much  to  be  compelled  to  appear  so 
particular ;  but  the  germ  must  be  kept  away  from  the  people  of 
the  interior,  even  if,  in  doing  so,  the  people  of  the  interior  be 
kept  away  from  Galveston,  and  therefore  be  compelled  to  buy 
their  goods  in  Houston.  The  people  of  Houston  believe  in 
the  maxim,  "  Self-interest  is  the  first  law  of  nature." 

Sometimes,  when  Houston  quarantines  Galveston  for  a  length 
of  time,  the  sand-crabs  become  restless :  they  want  to  leave 
their  sand-bar,  and  go  out  among  the  green  fields,  and  by  the 
side  of  the  murmuring  brooks,  of  the  interior.  Or  perhaps  a 
mud-turtle  from  Houston  may  be  in  Galveston  when  the  quar- 
antine edict  is  pronounced,  and  he  wants  to  get  back  home 
because  he  has  business  to  attend  to  there,  and  because,  under 
the  circumstances,  the  society  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  sand- 
bar is  oppressive.  He  cannot  get  away,  however ;  for  the  road 


QUARANTINE.  27 

to  Houston  and  the  interior  is  guarded  by  quarantine  officers, 
assisted  by  long-range  duck-guns. 

On  one  occasion  during  the  quarantine  season  (in  1873,  I 
think),  the  Galvestonians  determined  to  go  to  Houston  anyhow. 
They  sent  a  delegation  to  test  the  matter.  The  delegates  pro- 
ceeded, boldly  and  defiantly,  to  within  a  short  distance  of  the 
Houston  city  limits.  They  were  beginning  to  feel  proud  of 
their  success,  when  they  received  a  check.  The  Houston  Board 
of  Health  checked  their  progress.  The  delegation  expostulated ; 
but  it  was  of  no  use.  Then  the  Houston  Board  of  Health  re- 
ceived, in  its  turn,  a  check,  —  on  the  First  National  Bank,  for 
two  thousand  dollars.  The  delegation  went  into  Houston. 
Next  day  the  quarantine  was  raised.  When  it  comes  to  strat- 
egy, the  crab  gets  away  with  the  turtle. 


28 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER     II. 


WAS  Sunday ;  and  I  strolled 
along  the  clean,  broad,  straight 
streets,  and  wide,  smooth  side- 
walks, shaded  by  fragrant 
oleanders.  The  private  resi- 
dences, particularly  those  on 
a  very  broad  fashionable  ave- 
nue that  ran  east  and  west, 
were  large  and  elegant.  The 
stores  on  the  strand  were  four 
or  five  stories  high,  massive  in 

structure,  and  most  of  them  built  of  brick.  The  island  itself 
seemed  to  be  composed  entirely  of  sand.  These  facts  put  me 
to  thinking.  I  had  been  taught  to  believe  that  every  thing 
printed  in  the  Bible  was  solid  fact, — to  believe  it  literally; 
and  I  was  never  permitted  to  get  over  or  around  a  difficult 
place  by  taking  it  for  granted  that  the  meaning  was  allegorical 
or  symbolical.  I  had  swallowed  Jonah  and  the  whale  without 
much  trouble ;  and  I  assisted,  so  to  speak,  in  constructing  the 
universe  in  six  days  of  twenty-four  hours  each.  I  had  always, 
as  a  boy,  entertained  serious  doubts  about  the  literal  truth  of 
some  of  the  Bible  statements  being  intended  for  facts  ;  but 
there  was  one  assertion,  to  question  the  truth  of  which  never 
occurred  to  me.  I  had  never  doubted  but  that  the  story  of  the 
foolish  man  who  built  his  house  upon  the  sand  was  founded  on 
an  actual  occurrence.  Nothing  could  be  more  natural  than 
that  an  edifice  built  on  such  an  uncertain  foundation  should 
fall  as  soon  as  it  was  subjected  to  the  action  of  the  elements. 


HOUSES  BUILT  ON  THE  SAND.  29 

Here  in  Galveston  I  filed  away  this  popular  fallacy  along  with 
other  delusions  of  my  youth.  All  around  me  were  thousands 
of  substantial  houses  built  on  the  sand,  and  showing  no  signs 
of  crumbling  to  pieces.  I  was  bewildered.  Meeting  an  old 
gentleman  of  clerical  appearance,  I  stopped  him,  and  asked  him 
if  it  ever  rained  in  Galveston. 

"  Oh,  yes  !  we  have  such  heavy  rains  that  the  streets  are 
sometimes  flooded." 

"  Why,  then,  do  not  these  houses  fall  ?  They  are  built  on  the 
sand,  and  they  ought  to  fall." 

"My  dear  sir,  you  now  refer  to  a  subject  that  has  caused  me 
more  mental  distress  than  any  other.  Every  thing  else  in  the 
Bible,  except  that  sand  parable,  I  can  explain.  Why  these 
houses  do  not  fall,  being  built  on  the  sand,  is  the  only  ques- 
tion connected  with  the  Bible  teaching  that  I  cannot  answer. 
I  have  the  matter  under  advisement,  however."  Bidding  me 
good-day,  he  went  into  a  large  brick  church  on  Broadway. 

I  met  at  the  hotel  a  very  intelligent  gentleman,  who  gave 
me  quite  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  matter.  He  was 
a  practical  architect,  and  knew  whereof  he  spoke.  He  said,  — 

"  There  is  no  greater  mistake  than  to  suppose  that  sand,  and 
particularly  wet  sand,  does  not  make  a  good  foundation.  If 
you  dig  down  a  foot  and  a  half  anywhere  on  Galveston  Island, 
you  strike  wet  sand.  You  can  erect  the  largest  edifice  in  the 
world  on  wet  sand ;  and  it  will  never  show  the  slightest  sign 
of  sinking,  and  the  walls  will  never  crack." 

"That  is  certainly  very  strange." 

"  Yes,  but  it  is  a  fact  all  'the  same.  Sand  makes  a  founda- 
tion ten  times  better  than  the  black,  waxy  earth  they  have  in 
the  interior  of  the  State.  Nearly  all  the  buildings  in  Houston 
are  cracked.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  prevent  them  from 
falling,  even  when  they  have  mortgages  on  them.  When  they 
undertook  to  build  the  big  market-house  of  Houston,  they 
were  very  much  puzzled  to  know  how  to  obtain  a  secure  foun- 
dation :  so  they  sent  to  New  York  for  an  architect  to  superin- 
tend the  job.  The  man  understood  his  business  :  so  he  told 
them  their  soil  was  not  suited  to  build  upon,  and  that,  if  they 
wanted  their  market-house  to  stand,  they  should  bring  up 


30  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

several  hundred  car-loads  of  sand  from  Galveston  Island,  the 
sand  to  be  used  as  a  foundation." 

"  What  did  the  Houston  people  say  to  that  ? " 

"They  did  not  say  much.  They  were  too  mad  to  talk. 
They  thought  the  architect  had  been  hired  by  the  Galveston 
people  to  insult  them.  I  don't  know  what  became  of  the  man  : 
he  was  never  heard  of  afterwards." 

I  perceived  that  my  new  acquaintance  shared  the  popular 
prejudice  against  Houston.  What  he  said,  however,  about 
sand  being  a  good  material  for  a  foundation,  is  true  :  hence  the 
mystery  about  the  man  who  built  his  house  on  the  sand  is 
darker  and  more  impenetrable  than  ever. 

After  dinner  I  strolled  out  to  inspect  Galveston's  greatest 
natural  attraction,  the  beach.  Imagine  a  floor  of  fine,  hard, 
level  sand,  a  hundred  yards  wide  and  thirty  miles  long,  with 
the  blue  Gulf  breaking  upon  it,  and  you  have  Galveston  Beach. 
The  blue  waves,  the  still  bluer  sky,  and  the  soft  Gulf-breeze 
blowing  steadily  inland  over  the  white-capped  billows,  make  an 
impression  that  is  not  readily  effaced  from  the  mind  of  a  person 
of  poetic  temperament ;  although  he  will  doubtless  think,  that, 
for  twenty  cents,  a  piece  of  soap  ought  to  be  furnished  with 
the  bathing-suit  by  the  blear-eyed  outcast  who  has  charge 
of  the  bathing-facilities.  On  Sunday  afternoons  the  beach  is 
the  fashionable  promenade.  Thousands  of  well-dressed  ladies 
and  gentlemen,  many  of  them  accompanied  by  children,  prob- 
ably their  own,  saunter  along  the  edge  of  the  Gulf,  watching 
the  flight  of  the  white-winged  sea-gull,  the  lofty  plunge  of 
a  lonely-nosed  pelican,  who  is  after  some  little  fish  whose 
acquaintance  he  is  anxious  to  make.  The  young  bloods  of  the 
city  dash  past  in  their  fancy  turn-outs  ;  for  the  beach  is  almost 
the  only  part  of  the  island  where  they  can  drive,  as  almost 
everywhere  else  the  sand  is  too  deep.  Although  the  beach 
was  dotted  with  numerous  bath-houses,  few  persons  were  dis- 
porting themselves  in  the  brine,  except  at  the  end  of  the 
streets,  where  the  street-car  line  terminated.  At  that  point 
was  gathered  an  immense  crowd,  composed  almost  entirely 
of  well-dressed  gentlemen.  Many  of  them  were  quite  well 
advanced  in  years ;  but  the  majority  seemed  to  be  of  that  age 


SCANTY  COSTUME.  31 

at  which  it  becomes  difficult  to  say,  at  first  glance,  where  the 
boy  leaves  off,  and  the  man  begins.  They  were  all  gazing 
intently  at  some  persons  who  were  in  the  surf.  By  the  earnest 
expression  of  their  countenances,  and  the  close  attention  they 
paid,  I  imagined  that  the  disciples  of  John  the  Baptist  were 
performing  their  ancient  rite  on  some  persons  who  desired  to 
join  the  church.  I  took  a  seat  on  a  bench  beside  a  pleasant- 
looking  gentleman,  and  remarked,  — 

"The  Baptists  seem  to  be  pretty  numerous  in  Galveston. 
Are  all  those  gentlemen  who  are  looking  on  Baptists  ? " 

The  man  looked  at  me  very  intently ;  but,  before  he  could 
reply,  a  female  shriek  was  heard,  and  a  roar  of  laughter  went 
up  from  the  assembled  congregation  on  the  beach.  Never  hav- 
ing heard  of  any  such  hilarity  being  a  part  of  the  ceremony  of 
baptism,  I  was  very  much  surprised.  My  companion  explained, 
that  on  Sunday  no  respectable  persons  went  into  the  surf,  and 
the  beach  was  given  up  to  the  demi-monde.  The  parties  in  the 
water,  upon  whom  I  had  supposed  baptism  was  being  per- 
formed, were  members  of  a  local  variety-show,  who  were  cut- 
ting up  all  manner  of  antics  in  the  waves.  The  crowd  of 
well-dressed  gentlemen  were  not  religiously  engaged,  as  I  had 
supposed. 

"But  are  bathers  allowed  to  appear  in  such  a  scanty  cos- 
tume ?  "  I  asked ;  for  the  female  bathers  were  dressed  so  lightly 
as  to  justify  the  inference  that  the  water  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
was  too  warm  to  admit  of  much  clothing  being  worn. 

"  There  is  a  city  ordinance  forbidding  such  exhibitions,  and  a 
policeman  is  kept  out  here  on  the  beach  to  arrest  all  persons 
who  violate  the  ordinance ;  but  I  suppose,  this  being  Sunday,  he 
is  in  church,  and  these  parties  are  here  taking  advantage  of  his 
absence.  No,  by  Jove !  there  he  is ! "  and  my  companion 
pointed  to  a  man  in  a  blue  coat,  who  was  leaning  over  his 
horse's  neck,  intently  gazing  on  the  aquatic  sports. 

"  Why  does  he  not  arrest  them  ? "  I  asked. 

"  He  will  probably  arrest  them  as  soon  as  he  has  taken  a 
good  look  at  them.  He  has  to  look  at  them  closely  in  order  to 
identify  them  in  court.  As  soon  as  he  is  satisfied  that  he  will 
know  them  again,  he  will  take  them  in  charge." 


32  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Suddenly  the  officer  of  the  law  aroused  himself,  and  stood  up 
in  his  stirrups. 

"  Now  he  is  going  to  take  them  in  out  of  the  damp,"  re- 
marked my  companion.  At  a  break-neck  pace,  the  ever-vigi- 
lant policeman  charged  down  the  beach,  past  the  scantily 
dressed  bathers,  until  he  checked  up  his  foaming  steed  several 
hundred  yards  beyond.  "Hello,  there!"  he  shouted  in  a  voice 
that  silenced  the  tumultuous  roar  of  the  Gulf.  Slowly  a  small 
boy  errjerged  from  the  waves,  and,  trembling  in  every  limb, 
sought  the  hostile  shore.  A  well-dressed  gentleman,  evidently 
the  father  of  the  boy,  expostulated  with  the  policeman,  who 
said,  "  It's  agin  the  city  ordinance  for  anybody  over  six  years 
of  age  to  go  in  bathing,  unless  he  is  covered  from  the  neck  to 
the  knees." 

"  But  that  boy  is  not  six  yet,"  replied  the  father. 

"He  looks  as  if  he  was  six  and  a  half,  at  least,"  said  the 
policeman,  turning  his  head  modestly  away  from  the  boy. 

"  And  his  bathing-suit  comes  down  to  his  knees,"  continued 
the  father,  pointing  to  the  dripping  garments  of  the  shivering 
boy,  on  whose  face  all  manner  of  misery  and  distress  was 
depicted. 

"  It's  at  least  an  inch  above  his  knees,  and  that  is  an  immod- 
est exposure,"  replied  the  guardian  of  the  morals  of  the  city  of 
Galveston,  looking  furtively  at  the  boy,  and  instantly  looking 
away  again. 

Just  at  this  crisis  a  shout  went  up  from  the  crowd  already 
mentioned,  who  were  looking  at  the  exhibition  in  the  surf ;  and 
the  policeman,  fearing  that  he  was  missing  something,  galloped 
hastily  back.  When  I  got  up  to  leave,  that  policeman  still  had 
his  eagle  eye  riveted  on  the  violators  of  the  bathing  ordinance, 
all  of  whom  were  over  six  years  of  age,  and  none  of  them  were 
covered  from  neck  to  knee.  The  little  boy  who  had  so  out- 
raged the  public  sense  of  propriety,  profiting  by  the  oppor- 
tunity, had  made  good  his  escape. 

Probably  no  city  in  the  United  States  enjoys  such  bathing- 
facilities  as  does  this  Texas  seaport.  A  finer  beach  for  bathing- 
purposes  could  not  be  made  to  order.  The  water  deepens  very 
gradually,  there  is  no  undertow,  and  all  the  conditions  are 


THE  MAN   WITH   A   SPY-GLASS.  33 

favorable  to  making  Galveston  a  first-class  watering-place. 
One  would  suppose,  that,  during  the  extreme  heat  of  summer, 
Galveston  would  be  crowded  with  people  from  the  interior  of 
the  State ;  but  such  is  not  the  case.  On  the  contrary,  the  com- 
paratively few  people  from  the  interior  who  go  there  to  spend 
the  summer  do  not  equal  in  number  the  Galvestonians  who  go 
off  to  Long  Branch  and  Saratoga,  where  it  is  actually  many 
degrees  hotter  than  it  is  on  their  own  island.  ®ne  reason  why 
so  few  Texans  take  advantage  of  the  bathing-facilities  of  Gal- 
veston is  the  dread  they  have  of  yellow-fever,  which  in  former 
years  used  to  be  almost  the  only  disease  people  died  of  in  Gal- 
veston. When  a  prominent  citizen,  instead  of  dying  of  yellow- 
fever,  died  of  delirium  tremens,  or  went  off  with  a  shark  while 
fishing,  an  inquest  was  held,  and  a  verdict  rendered  to  the 
effect  that  the  deceased  came  to  his  death  in  an  improper  and 
illegitimate  manner,  and  that  he  was  guilty  of  culpable  negli- 
gence in  so  doing.  Of  course,  the  natives  became  used  to 
yellow-fever,  and  in  time  got  to  liking  it,  although  a  'great 
many  never  gave  it  a  second  trial.  Strangers,  who  had  an  im- 
perfect idea  of  the  dread  disease,  conceived  a  prejudice  against 
it,  and  refused  to  go  to  Galveston  to  amuse  themselves  in 
summer.  Yellow-fever  in  Galveston  has  become  a  thing  of  the 
past ;  but  the  scare  is  as  big  as,  if  not  bigger  than,  it  ever  was. 
There  has  not  been  a  case  of  yellow-fever  in  Galveston  for 
many  years ;  but  that  fact,  instead  of  re-assuring  the  people  of 
the  interior,  has  precisely  the  opposite  effect.  They  say,  "  If 
there  has  been  no  yellow-fever  in  Galveston  for  so  long,  they 
will  be  sure  to  have  it  this  year ;  "  arguing  on  the  principle,  that, 
after  a  man  at  billiards  has  made  an  incredible  number  of 
points,  the  next  shot  is  almost  sure  to  be  a  miss.  For  these 
reasons,  Galveston  is  deserted  in  summer. 

As  I  walked  along  the  beach  with  my  newly-made  acquaint- 
ance, we  met  a  very  elegantly  dressed  old  gentleman  with  a 
white  head,  who,  sitting  in  his  buggy,  was  looking  at  the 
female  bathers  with  a  spy-glass  four  feet  long. 

"What  do  you  mean  by  looking  at  the  bathers  with  that  spy- 
glass ? "  asked  my  companion  indignantly. 

"  It  is  not  my  fault  that  my  eyesight  is  impaired.     I  am  an 


34 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


old  man,  and  have  to  use  a  spy-glass."     And  he  kept  on  taking 
observations. 

The  favorite  topic  of  conversation  is  the  condition  of  the 
bar,  on  which  the  water  is  so  shallow  that  large  ships  find  it 
profitable  to  stay  outside.  If  there  were  water  enough  on  the 
bar  to  allow  vessels  to  come  up  to  the  wharves,  Galveston 
would  have  a  great  deal  more  trade  than  she  has.  The  trouble 
is,  that  the  bar  cannot  be  removed  without  money ;  and  a  great 
deal  of  money  is  required  for  the  purpose.  When  it  comes  to 


ADMIRING     NATURE. 


eating  up  money  without  furnishing  any  practical  equivalent, 
Galveston  bar  is  almost  a  rival  to  a  four-horse  daily  paper  in  a 
one-horse  town.  The  United-States  Government  has  been 
making  alleged  efforts  to  remove  the  bar,  but  the  appropria- 
tions have  been  too  small.  The  Government  might  keep  on, 
through  the  endless  ages  of  eternity,  appropriating  seventy 
thousand  dollars  a  year ;  and  at  the  expiration  of  that  term 
there  would  be  just  about  the  same  depth  of  water  as  there 
always  has  been,  which  is  about  twelve  feet,  although  it  usually 
averages  a  foot  or  so  more  whenever  a  reporter  goes  out  with 
some  interested  parties  to  inspect  the  bar,  and  the  contractors 


THE   BAR.  35 

furnish  champagne,  etc.  If  the  reporter  enjoys  himself  very 
much,  the  depth  of  water  on  the  bar  has  been  known  to  in- 
crease to  sixteen  feet ;  but  that  is  only  on  extraordinary  occa- 
sions. The  ship-captain  whose  vessel  draws  more  than  twelve 
feet,  reads  these  deep-water  statements,  and  believes  them. 
He  hoists  anchor,  and  endeavors  to  come  into  harbor ;  but  he 
gets  stuck  on  the  bar,  and  stays  there.  The  ship  springs  a 
leak,  and  the  owners  in  England  despair  when  they  hear  of  it. 
They  telegraph  back  to  sell  the  ship  before  she  goes  to  pieces, 
which  is  done.  The  Galveston  merchant  buys  her  up  for  a 
couple  of  hundred  dollars,  hires  a  tug  to  pull  her  off  the  bar, 
pumps  the  water  out,  refits  her  at  a  trifling  expense,  gives  her 
a  new  name,  and  holds  a  banquet  on  board,  at  which  the  press 
is  represented,  of  course,  and  the  great  natural  advantages  of 
Galveston,  and  the  enterprise  of  the  Island  City,  are  discussed. 

I  forgot  to  mention  that  this  information  was  imparted  to* 
me  by  a  Houston  man.  He  stated  positively  that  the  local 
journalists  were  the  only  persons  or  agencies  that  had  ever 
succeeded  in  deepening  Galveston  bar ;  also  that  the  greatest 
material  advantage  of  Galveston  was  that  bar ;  that  foreign 
vessels  got  wrecked  on  it  without  being  damaged  to  any  ex- 
tent, and  having  been  bought  up  for  a  song  by  the  Galveston 
merchant,  at  a  slight  expense  for  refitting,  yield  a  profit  of 
many  thousand  per  cent.  I  subsequently  found  that  the  whole 
story  was  a  Houston  slander,  gotten  up  with  a  view  to  ship- 
wrecking the  prosperity  of  Galveston  ;  and  I  merely  refer  to  the 
matter  to  illustrate  the  rivalry  between  the  two  seaports. 

The  merchants  of  Galveston  do  an  immense  business,  and 
some  of  the  establishments  are  very  extensive  indeed.  I  was 
shown  over  one  establishment  by  the  urbane  proprietor.  All 
proprietors  are  urbane.  The  first  thing  I  was  shown  was  a 
long  row  of  domestics.  I  do  not  mean  a  long  line  of  nrenials 
drawn  up  in  a  row,  but  a  long  display  of  cotton  goods.  There 
was  enough  calico  in  sight  to  have  furnished  every  woman  in 
the  country  with  a  dress,  with  a  large  enough  remnant  left  over 
to  furnish  the  baby  with  a  wrapper.  The  proprietor  merely 
waved  his  hand  at  the  display  in  an  offhand  sort  of  a  way,  and 
said,  "As  you  see,  our  calicoes  have  not  yet  arrived.  We  have 


36  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

only  a  few  remnants  left  over  from  last  year's  stock.  I  really 
wish  we  had  a  few  prints  to  show  you." 

We  next  passed  through  the  blanket  department.  They 
were  stacked  up  in  double  rows  ten  feet  high  for  a  few  hun- 
dred yards. 

"As  you  observe,"  remarked  the  merchant,  "we  are  just 
about  out  of  blankets.  We  have  a  few  cargoes  on  the  way,  but 
at  present  we  have  hardly  as  many  as  it  would  take  to  supply 
the  Houston  market  for  a  year." 

And  so  it  was  all  the  way  through.  I  was  requested  not  to 
pay  any  attention  to  about  an  acre  of  every  imaginable  kind  of 
notions.  He  said  that  it  was  not  the  right  time  of  the  year  for 
notions.  Those  that  I  saw  were  merely  kept  on  hand  to  supply 
the  Houston  merchants,  and  for  samples.  The  counting-room 
was  swarming  with  a  small  army  of  book-keepers  and  clerks. 
He  looked  over  the  busy  scene,  and  said,  — 

"There  is  nobody  here.  Nearly  all  the  regular  employees 
have  gone  to  Houston  on  an  excursion.  I  feel  like  one  who 
treads  alone  some  banquet-hall  deserted,  after  the  last  reveller 
has  been  removed  by  the  police.  This  is  the  off  season,  and  our 
store  looks  like  a  country  graveyard  ;  but  it  is,  of  course,  a  great 
deal  more  lively  than  it  is  in  Houston  during  the  busy  season." 

To  my  great  surprise,  I  found  an  old  friend  at  the  dinner- 
table.  We  used  to  call  him  "the  doctor"  at  college,  because  he 
had  attempted  the  study  of  medicine.  After  a  cordial  interchange 
of  greetings,  and  a  mutual  order  for  soup,  the  doctor  said,  — 

"  Who  would  have  thought  it  ? " 

I  echoed  the  doctor's  question. 

"Why!  I  thought  you  were  in  Europe,"  said  he  in  an  injured 
tone. 

"And  I  supposed  you  were  in  California." 

"  What  brought  you  here  anyhow  ? " 

"I  came  to  see  —  well,  to  see"  — 

"  Yes,  I  see  you  are  evidently  at  sea,"  said  the  doctor,  who, 
besides  possessing  a  large  share  of  that  popular  moral  quality 
called  "  cheek,"  had  a  propensity  for  puns  that  had  more  than 
once  caused  a  coolness  between  him  and  some  of  his  best 
friends. 


THE  DOCTOR. 


37 


When  I  inquired  why  the  doctor  came  to  Texas,  he  intimated 
that  fortuitous  circumstances  and  an  insecure  cellar-grating  — 
.  his  uncle  lived  only  two  days  after  the  accident  —  had  enabled 
him  to  devote  his  time  to  the  study  of  doing  nothing,  and  that 
he  had  taken  a  fancy  to  see  Texas,  shoot  buffalo,  hunt  Indians, 
and  —  "  and  that  sort  of  a  thing,  you  know." 

I  told  the  doctor  that  I  had  not  made  up  my  mind  as  to 
whether  I  would  devote  my  attention  to  shooting  Indians  and 
buffalo,  or  not,  but  that,  no  doubt,  I  would  meet  some  of  "  that 
sort  of  thing,  you  know,"  as  I  expected  to  travel  across  the 


MEETING    OF    THE    DOCTOR    AND    PARTNER. 


State  to  the  Rio  Grande.  I  invited  the  doctor  to  accompany 
me. 

"  Go  on  horseback  ? "  said  the  doctor. 

"Yes." 

"  Camp  out  ?  " 

"  I  reckon." 

"  Lots  of  Indians  on  the  route,  ain't  there  ? " 

"  Quien  sabe  ?  " 

"  Carry  a  rifle  ?  " 

"By  all  means." 

"  Then,  by  Jove  !  you  may  count  on  me,  and,  if  possible,  let's 
start  on  the  2Oth.  As  Macbeth  says,  'The  deed  I'll  do  before 
this  purpose  cools.' ): 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER     III. 


EIGHT  o'clock  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  2oth  of  May,  a  pro- 
cession might  have  been  seen 
passing  across  the  plank  that 
connected  the  steamboat 
"  Charles  Fowler  "  with  one  of 
Galveston's  wooden  piers.  The 
procession  was  armed,  carried 
saddle-bags,  and  consisted  of 

the  doctor  and  myself.  In  view  of  a  journey  into  the  domain 
of  "ye  wild  sauvauges,"  we  had  had  the  hair  of  our  heads  cut 
so  close  that  we  were  almost  as  bald  as  the  venerable  Ethiopian 
renowned  in  song.  We  were  attired  in  a  costume  that  seemed 
to  be  a  cross  between  a  second-class  tramp's  undress  uniform 
and  the  habiliments  of  a  Comanche  brave ;  and  attached  to  our 
person  at  every  point  where  any  thing  could  be  buckled  or  hung 
were  weapons  of  all  sorts,  from  the  murderous  Spencer  rifle  to 
the  soothing  and  medicinal  pocket-flask. 

After  being  interviewed  by  a  reportorial  fiend,  on  the  supposi- 
tion'that  we  were  the  nucleus  of  "another  Mexican  revolution," 
we  at  length  got  safe  on  the  steamboat  bound  for  Houston. 
Our  luggage  was  also  safe,  although  it  looked  dangerous.  It 
consisted,  besides  the  arsenal  before  alluded  to,  of  two  blankets, 
two  saddles,  and  two  pairs  of  saddle-bags.  Each  of  the  latter 
contained  one  other  shirt,  several  pounds  of  tobacco,  and  a 
change  of  pipes.  The  doctor  wanted  to  buy  two  or  three 


EXTRAORDINARY  OUTFIT. 


39 


quarts  of  glass  beads  with  which  to  conciliate  such  Indians  as 
we  might  take  prisoners,  and  would  not  want  to  shoot.  I  de- 
monstrated to  him  that  we  had  no  room  in  our  saddle-bags  for 
beads,  and  that  we  had  better  kill  all  our  Indians  anyhow. 
He  reluctantly  agreed  with  me,  and  used  the  money  he  had 
intended  to  invest  in  the  beads  in  the  purchase  of  a  silver- 
handled  hunting-knife,  that  would  be  handy  in  case  any  scalp- 
ing would  have  to  be  done. 

Leaving  Galveston,  we  steamed  across  the  bay,  heading  for 
the  mouth  of  the  bayou.     Buffalo  Bayou  is  navigable  from  its 


EXTRAORDINARY    OUTFIT. 


mouth  to  Houston,  a  distance  of  fifty  miles,  although  it  does 
not  average  forty  yards  in  width.  Steamers  run  daily  to  Hous- 
ton ;  but  owing  to  the  windings  of  the  bayou,  and  lack  of  sea- 
room,  they  go  very  slowly,  taking  ten  hours  to  make  the  trip. 
The  tides  ebb  and  flow  in  the  bayou  as  far  inland  as  Houston. 

The  country  on  each  side  is  level  prairie.  We  can  see  very 
little  of  it,  as  both  banks  are  high,  and  covered  with  a  dense 
growth  of  timber.  Often  the  overhanging  branches  brush 
against  the  smoke-stack ;  and  as  we  lean  over  the  stern  rail, 
while  the  steamboat  makes  a  sharp  curve,  we  can  pluck  the 


40  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

gorgeous,  wax-like  flowers  *of  the  magnolia.  Flowers  of  every 
hue  and  fragrance  line  the  banks ;  and  high  above  all  towers 
the  lofty  oak,  from  the  branches  of  which  hang  festoons  of 
Spanish  moss,  shadowing  all  beneath,  and  giving  a  sombre  and 
funereal  appearance  to  the  trees  on  which  it  hangs.  I  do  not 
know  why,  but  whenever  I  see  a  tree  draped  in  that  shaggy 
moss  I  think  of  death. 

The  mails  are  landed  and  received  at  several  points  without 
stopping  the  boat.  Occasionally  we  stop  to  wood  up ;  and  it  is 
an  interesting  sight  to  see  a  gang  of  semi-nude  and  perspiring 
negroes  throw  two  or  three  cords  of  wood  aboard  in  as  many 
minutes.  But  no  other  incident  worthy  of  note  occurs  to  vary 
the  monotony  of  the  trip. 

The  day  was  hot,  —  ninety-five  in  the  shade,  and  a  hundred 
and  something  awful  in  the  sun.  After  dinner  we  chose  a 
shady  place  abaft,  and  for  the  remainder  of  the  trip  tried  to 
give  ourselves  up  to  the  soporific  influence  of  the  day,  the  scene, 
and  cigars  ;  but  it  was  decreed  that  we  should  not  have  peace. 
I  had  just  stretched  myself  out  on  a  soft  plank,  with  my  head 
on  a  coil  of  rope,  and  was  beginning  to  feel  comfortable,  when 
an  old  man,  who  seemed  to  be  on  the  shady  side  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  winters,  came  and  sat  down  beside  me.  He  had  only 
one  eye  and  two  visible  teeth,  but  what  he  lacked  in  those 
features  he  made  up  in  hair.  Twisting  up  his  mouth  as  if  he 
were  preparing  to  whistle  to  a  deaf  dog  up  a  blind  alley,  this 
superannuated  old  hen-coop  said,  — 

"  Was  you  born  in  old  Tennessee  ?  " 

"  No,  I  was  born  in  March,"  I  replied. 

"We  are  all  marchin'  on'ard  to  the  tomb,"  said  the  old  man, 
heaving  a  sigh  and  a  used-up  chew  of  fine-cut  overboard. 

I  asked  him  if  it  was  yellow-fever  germs  that  was  the  matter 
with  him.  He  was  not  much  of  a  mine  of  yellow-fever  infor- 
mation, but  he  wanted  to  tell  me  all  about  the  campaign  of 
James  K.  Polk  and  Clay  in  1842.  A  board  of  health  could 
not  stop  him  when  he  got  under  way,  and  so  for  twenty-seven 
miles  I  had  to  listen  to  ancient  Whig  and  Democratic  history. 
It  was  interesting,  and  some  of  these  days  I  intend  to  inflict 
ten  or  fifteen  miles  of  it  on  an  unprotected  public. 


COMING    UP    THE    BAYOU. 


SHOOTING  ALLIGATORS.  41 

Several  stockmen  behind  us  were  talking  about  dry  seasons. 
One  man  said  that  he  had  seen  the  Brazos  River  so  low  that 
he  had  crossed  it  in  a  pair  of  low  shoes  without  wetting  his 
feet. 

"Mister,"  said  a  tall,  solemn-looking  cow-boy,  "that  ain't 
nothin'.  I  came  down  the  Potomac  in  '67  when  we  couldn't 
see  the  banks  for  the  clouds  of  dust  raised  by  the  steamer's 
wheels.  Dry  season  !  You  jest  bet  it  was  !  " 

At  this  point  the  man  who  had  crossed  the  Brazos  looked 
sadly  and  resignedly  from  one  to  the  other  of  the  group,  and 
invited  the  crowd  to  adjourn  to  the  bar,  and  "wood  up." 

Alligators  taking  their  noonday  siesta  on  cypress  stumps 
and  rotten  logs  rolled  off  into  the  water  at  the  approach  of 
the  steamboat.  A  great  deal  of  ammunition  was  wasted  by 
the  passengers  in  attempts  to  shoot  these  reptiles.  Either  on 
account  of  the  strength  of  the  alligator's  skin  or  of  the  whiskey 
dispensed  at  the  bar,  the  shooting  was  barren  of  results. 

The  old  Tennessean  came  to  the  front  again.  This  time  he 
told  me  of  his  early  life, — his  fighting  in  Mexico,  and  his  losses 
during  the  late  fratricidal  struggle.  Then  he  went  to  sleep. 
He  didn't  sleep  long,  but  his  sleep  was  loud  and  hearty.  I 
think,  by  the  expression  of  his  mouth,  that  he  was  dreaming  of 
the  time  long  ago,  when  he  was  surrounded  by  the  clash  and 
din  of  battle  in  Mexico.  When  the  dinner-gong  was  turned 
loose  within  two  feet  of  his  ear,  he  was  probably  at  that  point 
in  his  military  career  where  he  stepped  behind  a  tree  to  avoid 
obstructing  the  progress  of  a  cannon-ball ;  for  he  awoke  in  a 
wild  and  demonstrative  manner,  and  assumed  a  warlike  atti- 
tude behind  the  smoke-stack.  When  he  had  rubbed  his  eyes, 
and  realized  his  situation,  he  simply  remarked,  "  Ah  !  "  and 
marched  boldly  into  the  saloon  amidst  the  clash  and  the  din 
of  the  dinner-dishes.  After  dinner  he  came  out  of  the  saloon, 
picking  his  solitary  pair  of  teeth  with  the  back  of  his  pocket- 
comb,  and  was  approaching  me  with  the  evident  intention  of 
discharging  some  more  ancient  history  at  me,  when  I  had 
business  out  on  the  bow  of  the  boat,  where  the  old  man 
could  not  climb.  When  I  got  out  there,  I  fell  into  a  revery. 
The  old  Tennessean  fell  into  a  bucket  of  tar  in  his  eagerness 


42  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

to  follow  and  corner  me ;  and,  in  the  language  of  the  immortal 
Bunyan,  "I  saw  him  no  more." 

I  thought  how  much  like  life,  travelling  on  a  steamboat  is. 
The  first  thing  you  know,  you  find  yourself  on  board  in  fine 
spirits,  early  in  life.  You  soon  get  acquainted  with  your  fel- 
low-travellers ;  and,  about  the  time  you  get  to  know  them,  they 
begin  to  get  off  at  way-landings.  At  every  wharf  somebody 
gets  off,  and  strangers  get  on  ;  but  the  boat  still  keeps  going. 
You  admire  the  landscape  ;  and,  when  you  get  thirsty,  the  bar- 
keeper puts  bitters  in  a  glass,  and  gives  you  a  piece  of  lemon- 
peel  to  chew.  These  are  the  pleasures  of  life  :  they  hardly 
counterbalance  the  misery  you  may  expect  from  slippery 
decks  and  old  hitching-posts  from  Tennessee ;  but  the  boat 
keeps  moving,  all  the  same.  Life  and  travelling  in  a  steam- 
boat have  their  pleasures  :  but  there  are  rapids  and  snags  and 
hard  pulls  up  stream  ;  and,  if  you  do  not  take  care,  you  are  apt 
to  get  a  cinder  in  your  eye.  Some  people,  who  are  born  with 
a  dozen  silver  spoons  and  an  electro-plated  napkin-ring  in  their 
mouths,  never  get  a  single  cinder  in  their  eyes  during  the 
whole  trip  from  Babydom  to  Styx  Ferry  ;  while  other  poor 
devils  miss  their  meals,  never  wear  fine  clothes,  and  are  not 
once  called  Major  or  Colonel  while  they  are  on  board.  They 
get  a  nice  fresh  cinder  in  their  eyes  at  every  turn  of  life,  and 
when  they  die  they  get  their  names  spelled  wrong  in  the  obitu- 
ary notices  that  the  superintendent  of  the  poor-house  furnishes 
with  his  weekly  report. 

In  such  manner  does  the  journey  of  life  resemble  travelling 
on  a  river-boat,  only  a  great  deal  more  so,  and  mixed  worse 
than  this  simile.  But  whether  you  are  born  with  the  family 
plate  in  your  mouth,  or  doomed  to  sport  a  cinder  in  your  eye 
through  life,  one  thing  is  certain, — the  boat  moves  on. 

At  last,  when  you  least  expect  it,  the  pilot,  with  the  hour- 
glass and  scanty  attire,  comes  aboard,  and  steers  you  across 
Styx  Ferry  into  the  harbor  of 

"  Barnes  House  !  Finest  hotel  in  the  city  !  Best  of  accom- 
modations, and  moderate  charges !  Step  right  this  way,  and 
ride  up  in  the  omnibus;  won't  cost  you  a  cent  !  " 

Thus  was  my  revery  interrupted  by  the  hotel-runner.     The 


HOUSTON  IN  1840.  43 

Barnes  House,  now  a  hotel  celebrated  for  the  toughness  of 
its  beefsteaks  and  the  flowery  and  picturesque  mendacity  of  its 
proprietor,  was  once  the  house  in  which  the  rough  pioneers  of 
1845  made  the  laws  of  the  young  republic.  We  were  assigned 
to  a  room,  that,  in  the  early  days  of  the  republic,  formed  a  part 
of  the  legislative  halls  of  Texas. 

Houston  is  the  railroad  centre  of  Texas,  and,  in  population 
and  wealth,  the  second  city  in  the  State.  The  railroads  bring 
to  the  city  a  constantly  increasing  trade,  as  the  rich  and  pro- 
ductive lands  of  the  interior  are  being  speedily  developed,  and 
the  extension  of  the  roads  is  keeping  pace  with  the  westward 
progress  of  the  frontier. 

The  Abbe  Domenick,  a  French  priest,  writing  of  Houston 
in  1840,  said,  "  Houston  is  a  small  and  muddy  village,  consist- 
ing of  several  log-huts,  and  very  much  infested  with  red  ants 
and  Methodists." 

The  city  has  now  from  eighteen  to  twenty  thousand  inhab- 
itants. The  houses  in  the  business  part  are  of  brick.  Many 
beautiful  residences,  mostly  of  wood,  are  to  be  seen  in  a  walk 
through  its  streets  and  shady  avenues. 

Houston  is  celebrated  for  the  luxuriant  beauty  of  her  private 
gardens,  and  for  the  fluent  muddiness  of  her  streets.  The 
main  thoroughfares  have  not  been  improved  by  the  labor  of 
man  since  their  foundations  emerged  out  of  the  profundity 
of  chaos  on  the  day  of  creation.  These  arteries  of  commerce 
and  convenience  are  often  spoken  of  as  being  "  bottomless ; " 
and  one  occasionally  hears  the  gentle  drayman  or  Christian 
hack-driver,  as  he  ploughs  his  way  through  the  tough  alluvian, 
begin  some  encouraging  remark  to  his  mules  by  an  allusion 
to  that  other  place  with  a  bottomless  reputation. 

In  Houston,  roses  are  in  bloom  at  Christmas ;  and,  in  fact, 
all  the  year  round  the  balmy  air  is  filled  with  the  perfume  of  a 
thousand  fragrant  flowers,  wafted  hither  and  thither  by  the 
gentle  breezes  that  come  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The 
myrtle,  the  jessamine,  and  the  magnificent  magnolia  flourish 
here,  and  diffuse  the  sweet  aroma  of  their  presence  with  a  pro- 
fusion and  extravagance  that  is  absolutely  sinful. 

In  these  warm  latitudes,  in  the  cool  of  the  evening,  a  group 


44  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

of  men  is  always  to  be  found  sitting  around  in  chairs  under 
the  hotel  awning.  The  group  usually  consists  of  the  hotel 
guests,  the  landlord,  and  the  married  men  who  come  "down 
town  to  meet  a  man  at  the  office  after  supper."  Their  occupa- 
tion at  these  times  consists  in  carving  their  initials  in  the  arms 
of  the  hotel  chairs,  and  their  amusement  in  competitive  lying. 

When  we  came  out  from  supper,  some  of  the  men  were  bal- 
ancing themselves  on  the  hind-legs  of  the  chairs,  their  feet 
on  the  columns  of  the  awning,  and  their  thoughts  straying  in 
the  realms  of  imagination. 

One  jovial-looking  liar,  with  the  wreck  of  a  watermelon  on 
his  knee,  and  an  impediment  in  his  speech,  had  just  finished 
a  thrilling  narrative  of  an  encounter  he  once  had,  down  in  the 
old  Caney  bottom,  with  a  hybrid  monster,  part  coyote  and  part 
bull-dog,  where  his  escape  was  owing  to  a  special  providence, 
assisted  by  a  brindled  steer,  on  whose  back  he  dropped  from 
the  tree  up  which  he  had  taken  refuge. 

This  reminded  the  landlord  of  a  story  :  "  When  I  was  keep- 
ing restaurant  up  at  Bryan,  before  the  railroad  got  there,  I  was 
trying  to  raise  a  pair  of  young  pups, — you  know,  them  little 
Mexican  dogs  that  have  got  no  hair,  except  a  tuft  on  the  top 
of  their  heads.  When  they  were  about  six  weeks  old,  their 
mother  was  run  over  by  a  delivery-wagon,  and  died.  I  had  a 
sow  that  at  the  time  had  a  family  of  young  ones  about  the  size 
of  the  dogs.  I  wanted  to  save  the  pups  if  possible,  as  I  had 
promised  one  of  them  to  old  man  Brown  :  so  I  took  a  fool  notion 
that  I'd  try  if  the  old  sow  would  raise  them.  Would  you  be- 
lieve it,  gentlemen  !  they  just  took  to  her  as  kindly  as  if  she 
had  been  their  own  mother.  And  there  I  had  six  young  pigs 
and  two  six-weeks-old  pups  growing  up  together  in  perfect  har- 
mony. 

"  In  about  a  week,  along  came  a  skipjack  of  an  Englishman, — 
one  of  them  'you  know,  you  know'  sort  of  dam  fools;  that 
kind  of  human  outrage  that  has  always  'seen  something  better 
than  that '  in  the  Old  Country,  and  tells  it  with  an  every-thing- 
clifferent-there-you-know  air  of  superiority.  He  had  been  blow- 
in'  around  promiscuous  for  a  day  or  two,  before  I  thought  of 
the  pups.  He  had  sort  o'  aggravated  me  more  than  common 


THE  ROOTER  DOG.  45 

that  morning  by  his  talk  of  the  'dawgs  and  'orses '  they  had 
in  England.  I  posted  some  of  the  boys,  and  told  them  to  be 
handy  in  the  evening.  So,  just  as  it  might  t>e  now,  we  were 
all  sitting  around  on  the  gallery,  as  it  was  beginning  to  get 
dark.  Says  I  to  the  Englishman,  'Major,  talking  about  them 
dogs  you  mentioned  this  morning,  do  you  have  any  rooter 
dogs  in  your  country  ? '  — '  Any  what  ? '  says  he.  '  Rooter  dogs,' 
says  I :  '  we  use  them  for  hunting  tarantulas,  and  for  harvest- 
ing goober  peas.  They're  a  cross  between  the  wild  Mexican 
hog  and  the  bulldog.  You  see,  the  bite  of  a  tarantula  will  kill 
a  common  dog  in  less'n  a  minute,'  says  I;  'whereas  snake- 
bites and  such  like  don't  fizzle  on  a  hog.  Well,  the  rooter 
being  half  hog,  half  dog/  says  I,  'is  just  what  we  want.  If  it 
hadn't  been  for  their  introduction  into  the  country,  the  taran- 
tula trade  would  never  have  been  developed  ;  and  as  for  gather- 
ing goober  peas,  —  they  grow  under  ground,  you  know,  —  the 
rooter  dog  is  the  greatest  labor-saving  animal  known.  You 
see,  the  hog  part  of  him  roots  the  goobers  out,  while  the- 
sagacity-of-t he-dog  part  enables  him  to  be  taught  to  pile  the 
peas  up  in  little  heaps  all  along  the  row.'  The  Englishman 
seemed  half  way  to  believe  it  all ;  but  he  laughed  in  a  knowing 
sort  of  a  way,  and  he  says,  says  he,  '  Aw,  now !  tell  that  to  the 
marines :  you  know  you  cawn't  expect  a  fellow  to  believe  all 
that.'  —  'Well,'  says  I,  'you  can  believe  it  or  not.  These 
gentlemen  here  all  know  that  it's  nothing  but  the  truth  I'm 
telling  you.  Some  of  them  keep  rooter  dogs  themselves  ;  and 
besides  all  that,  if  you'll  come  back  to  the  yard  with  me,  I'll 
show  you  two  genuwine  rooter  pups  that  I  am  raising  right  now. 
You  will  see  them  with  their  mother ;  and  I  reckon  that'll  con- 
vince you.'  The  Englishman  looked  around;  but,  as  he  couldn't 
detect  a  smile  anywhere, — for  the  boys  were  all  as  solemn- 
looking  as  a  row  of  turkey  buzzards  holding  a  post-mortem 
examination  on  a  dead  horse,  — he  says,  '  I  don't  mind  stwolling 
around  to  see  the  blawsted  things  anyhow.'  So  we  all  got  up, 
and  filed  into  the  stable-yard  ;  and  there,  sure  enough,  lay  the 
old  sow,  and  the  two  pups  beside  her.  I  had  had  the  colored 
boy  carry  off  all  the  young  shotes  before  we  came  into  the 
yard.  Great  cracky !  you  should  have  seen  that  Englishfman 


46 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


stare,  and  screw  his  glass  in  his  eye,  when  Jim  Johnson  put 
one  of  the  pups  in  his  hand,  that  he  might,  as  Jim  said,  exam- 
ine and  see  for  himself  that  we  had  some  />n?-ducts  that  they 
couldn't  raise  in  England. 

"  One  of  the  boys  showed  him  where  the  hog  part  was  devel- 
oped in  the  skin,  bristles  on  the  back,  and  curl  in  the  tail,  while 
another  called  his  attention  to  the  cropping-out  of  the  dog  in 
the  head  and  paws. 

"  Before  we  got  through  with  the  exhibition  of  the  peculiar 


ROOTER    DOG. 


and  valuable  points  of  the  pup,  the  Englishman  was  trembling 
with  eagerness  to  become  possessed  of  one  of  them,  that  he 
might  carry  it  back  to  the  Old  Country  with  him.  He  offered 
me  twenty  dollars  for  it.  I  wanted  thirty.  After  some  argu- 
ment, he  authorized  me  to  make  a  charge  on  his  bill  for  '  One 
rooter  dog,  twenty-five  dollars,'  with  the  understanding  that 
I  was  to  take  care  of  it  until  it  could  be  safely  weaned.  He 
was  as  proud  of  his  purchase  as  a  schoolboy  with  a  new  gum- 
boil ;  and,  till  late  in  the  night,  the  boys  sat  around,  relating 


GREEN  FROM  THE  STATES.  47 

interesting  reminiscences  of  tarantula  hunts,  giving  him  points 
in  natural  history,  and  furnishing  valuable  statistics  relative  to 
the  goober  interests. 

"  But,  bless  your  soul !  the  fun  didn't  begin  till  next  morning, 
when  the  Englishman  got  to  spoutin'  about  the  dawg  down  to 
Schmidt's  drug-store,  and  some  derned  fool  that  wasn't  in  the 
secret  dropped  the  bung  out  of  the  whole  business.  They 
devilled  the  poor  fellow  almost  to  death.  At  first  he  tried  to 
make  believe  that  he  had  twigged  the  racket  from  the  start, 
and  was  merely  humoring  the  joke ;  but  that  was  too  weak. 
Then  he  swore,  and  cussed  the  '  demmed  country,  you  know,' 
but  finally  got  into  good  humor,  and  set  'em  up  all  round.  He 
couldn't  stand  the  endless  quizzing,  however,  and  next  morning 
hired  a  team,  and  lit  out  for  San  Antonio." 

[I  omit  the  profanity  with  which  this  story  was  emphasized, 
as  it  was  not  intended  for  publication,  merely  given  as  a 
guaranty  of  good  faith.] 

It  might  be  well  to  state  the  fact  here  that  Texans  are  not 
bigoted,  and  have  no  prejudice  against  any  nationality.  They 
are  of  many  nationalities  themselves,  and  associating  with  peo- 
ple from  all  climes  gives  them  enlarged  and  liberal  views. 
Sectional  feeling  is  unknown,  except  in  isolated  cases.  The 
immigrant  or  traveller  from  the  Northern  States  always  receives 
a  hearty  welcome  in  Texas.  There  is  one  thing,  however,  that 
a  Texan  loves  better,  even,  than  the  hanging  of  a  horse-thief ; 
and  that  is  the  playing  of  practical  jokes  on  young  men  "green 
from  the  States."  These  jokes  are  usually  harmless  in  their 
character,  and  take  the  form  of  extravagant  tales  regarding 
Texas,  its  products,  Indians,  lawlessness,  manners  and  customs 
of  its  people,  accompanied  by  advice  as  to  how  the  stranger 
should  act  under  certain  described  circumstances.  If  a  man  is 
a  good  horseman,  and  does  not  affect  style  either  in  dress  or 
speech,  he  will  be  exempt  from  the  infliction  of  jokes,  and  will 
be  warmly  welcomed  by  the  native.  In  fact,  if  he  can  swear  a 
little  when  occasion  demands  it,  if  his  pants  are  of  jean,  and 
if  he  does  not  wear  that  effeminate  luxury,  socks,  his  welcome 
will  be  of  the  most  tropical  character.  The  phrase  "green  from 
the  States  "  suggests  another  fact.  Texans  speak  of  "  going 


48  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

back  to  the  States,"  "when  I  lived  back  in  the  States,"  "im- 
ported stock  from  the  States,"  thereby  unconsciously  ignoring 
the  fact  that  Texas  is  one  of  the  United  States. 

Not  long  since,  Texas  was  an  independent  republic :  then 
such  expressions  were  consistent,  and  had  meaning.  The  old 
citizens  have  not  yet  been  able  to  disabuse  their  minds  of  the 
idea  that  Texas  is  a  separate  and  superior  Territory.  Strength- 
ening this,  is  their  pride  in  the  vast  extent  of  their  State  :  they 
love  to  speak  of  it  as  "the  future  great  empire  ; "  and  truly,  as 
far  as  area,  combined  with  natural  resources,  is  concerned,  the 
world  has  seldom  seen  a  greater. 

The  morning  after  our  arrival  in  Houston,  we  walked  out  to 
see  the  city  (it  would  be  more  exact  to  say  that  we  waded). 

The  alleged  reason  why  the  streets  are  not  kept  in  a  better 
condition  is,  that  there  is  no  money  with  which  to  improve 
them.  The  city  owes  $1,800,000.  Houston  has  about  18,000 
inhabitants.  On  an  average,  every  citizen  owes  $112. 

The  consequences  of  Houston  lacking  cash  in  the  city  treas- 
ury are  visible  everywhere.  There  are  so  few  policemen,  that 
some  of  them  walk  over  more  ground  in  a  day  than  a  profes- 
sional pedestrian  does.  At  night  they  are  so  far  apart  that 
they  cannot  hear  each  other  snore.  Now,  in  Galveston  there 
is  one  policeman  to  every  five  or  six  saloons ;  but  in  Houston 
one  policeman  has  to  drink  beer  in  fifteen  different  places, 
some  of  them  two  miles  apart.  This  is  very  hard  on  a  police- 
man. If  he  is  found  asleep  on  his  beat,  he  is  banged  on  the 
head,  and  paid  off  in  depreciated  scrip  worth  fifteen  cents  on 
the  dollar.  One  policeman  has  so  much  to  do  that  he  becomes 
exhausted,  and  cannot  carry  a  drunken  man  to  the  lock-up  with- 
out having  to  make  three  trips  of  it.  For  a  while  the  city  was 
so  poor  that  it  could  not  pay  for  a  policeman's  whole  time,  and 
he  was  only  hired  for  a  few  hours.  The  revellers  would  wait 
until  his  time  was  up,  and  then  break  every  city  ordinance 
there  was. 


"GIVING    GALVESTON  HELL," 


49 


CHAPTER     IV. 

ARE  many  "oldest."  inhabitants  in 
Houston.  They  generally  open  out 
on  a  stranger  by  stating,  that,  when 
they  came  here  in  '40,  there  was  only 
one  two-story  house  in  the  place.  After 
you  have  listened  to  the  talk  o£  one  of 
these  pioneer  veterans  for  some  time,  you  begin  to  feel  that  the 
creation  of  the  world,  the  arrangement  of  the  solar  system,  and 
all  subsequent  events,  including  the  discovery  of  America,  were 
provisions  of  an  all-wise  Providence,  arranged  with  a  direct  view 
to  the  advancement  of  the  commercial  interests  of  Houston. 
One  of  the  old  inhabitants  told  me  all  about  the  New-Orleans 
railroad,  which,  he  said,  was  expected  to  leave  Galveston  high 
and  dry  on  the  quicksands  of  adversity,  while  Houston  would 
keep  on  flourishing  like  a  green  bay  horse  in  a  Blue-grass  pas- 
ture. I  said  that  I  did  not  see  how  a  road  direct  to  New  Orleans 
could  help  Houston  much. 

"Well,  no,"  he  said,  "that's  so:  it  won't  help  us  much, 
except  to  the  extent  that  it  will  give  Galveston  hell." 

There  seems  to  be  an  innate  animosity  towards  Galveston ; 
and  almost  every  conversation  on  the  resources  and  prospects 
ends  with  some  remark  that  reminds  one  of  the  delenda  est  of 
the  old  Roman  senator.  It  does  not  do  to  express  your  opinion 
about  any  particular  J-Iouston  institution,  unless  the  opinion  is 
prepared  expressly  for  the  Houston  market.  For  instance :  I 
was  in  a  drug-store,  getting  some  medicine,  and  had  a  very 
interesting  meteorological  conversation  with  the  proprietor 
while  he  was  folding  up  a  little  powder  that  he  took  out  of  a 

4 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


bottle  labelled  "  Pluribus  Unum,  Nox  Vomica,  Vox  Populi,"  or 
words  to  that  effect.  As  he  was  about  to  hand  me  the  powder, 
I  inadvertently  remarked,  — 

"  Your  city  seems  to  be  pretty  well  laid  out." 
All  in  the  world  I  meant  to  say  was,  that  the  streets  were 
broad  and  straight ;  but,  before  I  could  explain  myself,  all  pres- 
ent  jumped   to    their   feet.      My   special   friend   the   druggist 
glared  at  me,  and  then  bawled  out,  — 

"  Houston  is  well  laid  out,  is  she  ?  you  leprous  outcast  from 
Galveston !  I  tell  you,  you  vile  Galveston  emissary,  that 
Houston  is  a  lively  enough  corpse  to  lay  out  that  little  fishing- 
town  at  the  other  end  of  the  bayou.  You  come  here  swelling 

around,  and  trying  to  break 
up  our  trade,  do  you  ?  So 
Houston  is  well  laid  out,  is 
she  ?  We  will  see  who  is 
laid  out  next ! "  and  he  be- 
gan blowing  a  police-whistle. 
The  cashier  ran  up  stairs 
for  his  shot-gun,  while  a 
junior  member  of  the  firm 


bawled  out  to  the  porter,  — 
"John,   turn   the    bulldog 
loose  :  it's  time  to  feed  him." 

These  episodes  tended  to  make  my  stay  in  that  portion  of 
the  city  monotonous.  Besides,  I  was  afraid,  if  they  kept  on,  I 
might  become  exasperated :  so  I  said,  "  Don't  let  me  detain 
you  from  your  business,"  and  adjourned  sine  die. 

It  was  the  same  thing  everywhere  we  went.  After  the  doc- 
tor had  returned  to  the  hotel  to  get  his  shoes  scraped,  he  made 
some  remark  to  the  hotel  clerk  about  the  dust  on  the  street 
being  in  rather  a  juicy  condition. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  clerk,  with  great  complaisance :  "  we  never 
suffer  from  drouth  here,  sir ;  and  we  nev^er  have  to  dig  sand 
out  of  our  ears,  as  they  have  to  do  in  Galveston.  Down  there 
they  had  to  dig  an  artesian  well  twenty-five  hundred  deep,  and 
use  it  as  a  sort  of  anchor  to  keep  their  old  sand-bar  of  an 
island  from  moving  off." 


TURN  THE  BULLDOG  LOOSE. 


HOUSTON  AS  A   SEAPORT.  51 

I  had  heard  about  Houston  being  a  seaport,  but  I  thought  it 
was  a  joke.  I  knew,  however,  there  was  a  bar;  for  one  of  the 
very  first  gentlemen  I  was  introduced  to  took  me  to  see  it.  It 
was  very  much  like  the  bars  at  other  seaport  towns  I  had  seen. 
There  were  two  inches  of  water  on  the  Houston  bar,  in  a  tum- 
bler ;  and  I  supposed  the  rest  of  the  seaport  was  to  match. 
The  next  man  that  said  seaport  to  me,  I  took  him  off  to  one 
side,  told  him  that  I  always  liked  to  get  the  latest  marine 
intelligence,  hence  I  wanted  to  know  seriously  if  there  was 
any  seaport  in  town.  He  said  he  was  willing  to  make  an  affi- 
davit that  there  was  a  seaport  in  town.  Then  I  told  him  I 
wanted  him  to  take  me  out  for  a  drive  on  the  beach,  where  I 
could  disport  in  the  ocean's  wild  roar,  and  see  the  white-w;nged 
messengers  of  commerce  laden  with  cloves  from  where  the 
spicy  breezes  blow  soft  o'er  Ceylon's  Isle,  and  other  condiments 
from  far  distant  Cathay.  The  Houston  man  looked  me  square 
in  the  eye,  and  said,  — 

"  It  seems  to  me  you  have  a  damned  sight  of  curiosity  for  a 
stranger.  Do  you  want  to  go  to  see  it  right  away  ? " 

"  Right  off,"  I  replied. 

"Well,  le'me  see,"  he  mused:  "I  have  got  an  engagement 
with  a  man,  and  it's  nine  o'clock  already.  If  I  don't  hurry  up, 
I'll  miss  the  street-car."  And  off  he  went. 

Still  I  was  dissatisfied.  I  yearned  to  see  that  seaport,  even 
if  I  had  to  employ  a  detective  to  hunt  it  up.  I  knew  it  was  in 
Houston  concealed  somewhere,  but  I  was  afraid  it  would  be  re- 
moved to  a  place  of  safety  before  I  could  see  it.  The  next 
gentleman  I  was  introduced  to  also  had  something  to  say  about 
that  seaport.  I  asked,  — 

"  Do  you  let  strangers  see  it  every  day,  or  only  on  Sundays, 
or  how  ?  Does  it  keep  open  all  the  season  ?  Money  is  no 
object,  if  I  can  only  get  to  see  it.  I  don't  suppose  it  will  take 
me  very  long." 

Said  he,  "  Come  with  me,  and  I'll  show  you  the  shipping." 

He  took  me  down  behind  the  Hutchins  House ;  and,  in  a 
slough  at  least  forty  feet  wide  and  three  feet  deep,  I  saw  the 
fleet.  One  of  the  merchantmen  had  two  masts,  and  carried  at 
least  three  wagon-loads  of  sand.  It  did  not  seem  to  have  much 


52  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

first-class  accommodation  for  passengers  who  might  want  to 
cross  the  Atlantic  in  any  thing  like  style.  The  other  vessel  had 
only  one  mast,  and  did  not  have  as  many  tons'  displacement  as 
the  larger  craft. 

"  How  did  they  get  there  ? "  I  asked.  "  By  the  ship-chan- 
nel?" 

"By  tug." 

"They  must  have  a  pretty  heavy  tug  of  it  getting  up  here. 
I  do  not  see  any  iron-clads  or  ships-of-war.  Can  you  not  show 
me  the  tug  of  war  between  here  and  Galveston  ? " 

"Oh,  yes !  you  may  joke  ;  but  this  is  a  seaport,  all  the  same, 
according  to  an  Act  of  the  Legislature." 

I  had  heard  that  the  Legislature  made  laws,  but  I  never  knew 
it  made  seaports. 

"  Why,"  said  my  Houston  friend,  "  we  cannot  help  being  sea- 
ports. The  other  day  there  was  a  porpoise  killed  right  near  the 
city." 

"  On  purpose  ?  "  I  asked  ;  for  I  was  hungry  for  news. 

"  How  can  we  help  being  a  seaport  ?  Did  you  ever  hear  of  a 
porpoise  being  killed  in  a  town  that  was  not  a  seaport  ? " 

I  took  a  last  look  at  the  fleet, — one  of  which  a  man,  in  the 
mean  time,  had  pulled  out  on  the  land  to  dry,  —  sighed,  and 
went  back  to  the  hotel. 

The  seaport  at  Houston,  unlike  that  at  Galveston,  is  kept 
where  you  can  find  it.  It  is  not  taken  in  after  dark.  The  peo- 
ple do  not  seem  to  be  afraid  a  stranger  will  take  it  away  with 
him  in  a  bucket  when  he  leaves.  The  Houston  seaport  is  of  a 
very  inconvenient  size,  —  not  quite  narrow  enough  to  jump  over, 
and  a  little  too  deep  to  wade  through  without  taking  off  your 
shoes.  When  it  rains,  the  seaport  rises  up  twenty  or  thirty 
feet,  and  the  people  living  on  the  beach,  as  it  were,  swear  their 
immortal  souls  away  on  account  of  their  harbor  facilities.  The 
Houston  seaport  was  so  low  when  I  saw  it,  that  there  was  some 
talk  of  selling  the  bridges  to  buy  water  to  put  into  it. 

All  seaport  towns  suffer  from  those  marine  monsters  known 
as  mosquitoes.  In  inland  towns  you  have  to  raise  them  in  a 
cistern,  or  worry  along  without  them.  Both  coast  towns,  GaV 
veston  and  Houston,  have  fine  natural  facilities  for  raising 


A  BLOODED   GRADE   OF  MOSQUITOES.  53 

mosquitoes.  I  have  tried  both  brands  of  mosquitoes,  or  rather 
both  of  them  have  tried  me  ;  and  I  cannot  tell  which  is  the  best 
to  avoid  associating  with.  The  mosquito,  like  the  sailor,  is 
bred  on  the  water ;  but  he  will  not  return  to  you  after  many 
days,  because  he  will  never  leave  you.  In  Galveston  they  grow 
to  such  a  large  size,  that  a  stranger  is  apt  to  mistake  them  for 
pelicans.  A  Galvestonian  asked  me  if  I  had  seen  any  pelicans. 

"  Are  they  big  birds,  that  have  long  bills  ?  "  I  inquired. 

"  Yes  :  that's  the  kind  of  an  in- 
sect they  are." 

"Are  they  always  flying  about 
the  bars,  looking  for  something  to 
eat  ? " 

"  Precisely." 

"  Then  my  room  is  full  of  them, 
and  they  raise  a  blister  every  time 
they  bite." 

In  regard  to  the  merits  of  the  MOSQUITO. 

rival  brands  of   mosquitoes,  it  is 

with  pain  I  state  that  both  Galveston  and  the  other  maritime 
haven  are  prone  to  clothe  the  naked  truth  with  the  flowery 
garments  of  fiction.  In  Houston  they  showed  me  affidavits 
stating  that  in  Galveston  the  mosquitoes  were  so  large  as  to  be 
included  in  the  cow  ordinance,  while  in  Galveston  I  was  told 
that  the  Houston  mosquitoes  wore  forty-five-inch  undershirts. 
There  is  probably  a  happy  medium  between  the  two.  I  do  not 
know  how  happy  the  medium  is  ;  but,  if  he  is  not  under  a  mos- 
quito-bar, there  is  a  limit  to  his  bliss.  The  truth  is,  that  the 
coast-town  mosquito  rarely  exceeds  in  size  the  ordinary  Texas 
mocking-bird. 

[N.B.  — When  I  left  New  York,  I  could  not  have  told  a  lie  to 
save  my  life ;  and  here,  after  three-days'  residence  in  Texas, 
this  is  what  I  have  come  to  —  and  all  the  time  I  have  been 
associating  with  the  higher  classes.  They  say  in  Houston  that 
I  caught  the  infection  in  passing  through  Galveston.] 

Let  me  advise  all  persons  visiting  Texas  ports  of  entry  to 
leave  their  mosquitoes  behind  :  they  can  get  new  ones  cheaper. 

The  hotel  clerk  informed  us  that  there  were  Indians  in  town. 


54  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

He  told  us,  however,  not  to  be  alarmed  ;  that  they  were  friendly 
Indians,  of  the  Muscogee  tribe.  They  lived  in  the  bottoms  of 
the  Trinity  River,  and  occasionally  came  to  town,  and  exchanged 
the  fruits  of  the  chase  for  whiskey  and  other  fruits  of  civiliza- 
tion. He  said  they  were  on  good  terms  with  their  white 
brothers,  and  that  the  city  officials  not  unfrequently  enter- 
tained them  in  one  of  their  public  buildings  over  night,  and 
gave  them  public  receptions  next  morning,  at  which  the  mayor 
and  members  of  the  legal  profession  considered  it  their  duty 
to  be  present. 

Here,  thought  I,  is  an  opportunity  not  to  be  lost.  I  shall 
interview  the  noble  red  man.  It  will  make  a  thrilling  chapter 
in  my  book,  sound  romantic  —  good  subject  for  an  illustration 
—  full-page  woodcut :  in  the  foreground,  myself  and  a  warrior 
of  the  Muscogees  sitting  on  a  decayed  log,  smoking  the  calu- 
met of  peace,  and  holding  a  council ;  in  the  background,  my 
horse,  the  Indian's  pony,  and  a  slain  deer ;  the  warrior,  Howl- 
ing Jews-Harp,  a  young  chief,  tall,  well-built,  and  straight  as  a 
pine,  dressed  —  painted,  I  should  say  —  in  the  manner  that  only 
distinguished  chiefs  who  have  killed  many  a  warrior  have  a 
right  to  assume,  a  crest  of  feathers  from  an  eagle's  wing  sur- 
rounding his  head,  moccasons  gorgeously  embroidered  on  his 
feet,  a  buffalo  robe  hanging  with  careless  grace  from  his  left 
shoulder,  his  gestures  noble,  his  carriage  graceful,  and  his 
face  stamped  with  the  majesty  and  manliness  characteristic  of 
the  untutored  child  of  the  forest,  his  language  —  well,  I  knew 
all  about  that.  I  had  been  reading  up  the  Indian  lately,  and 
felt  that  I  was  pretty  well  informed  as  to  his  mode  of  express- 
ing himself.  I  had  just  read  the  following,  referring  to  the 
Texas  Indians,  in  a  late  copy  of  the  Galveston  "  News  :  "  — 

"  Their  languages  are  not  poetical,  but  they  use  the  most  simple  and 
natural  metaphors.  No  one  can  have  been  among  them  without  having 
noticed  the  intensity  of  feeling,  and  power  of  language  in  expressing  it, 
and  without  having  heard  bursts  of  wild,  unpremeditated  eloquence.  Their 
powers  of  description  are  remarkable.  So  bright  and  clear  is  the  impression 
produced,  that  one  feels  that  he  has  seen  what  they  describe.  In  this  regard, 
they  often  recall  the  vivid  semi-barbaric  pictures  of  Homer,  as  they  stand 
out  in  the  original  Greek  poetry,  but  not  the  dim  photographs  of  his 
translators." 


HOWLING    JEWS-HARP,    THE  INDIAN  CHIEF.        55 

I  once  read  a  book  by  a  man  named  Cooper,  who  evidently 
knew  what  he  was  writing  about.  He  described  the  Indian  — 
"Nature's  Nobleman" — with  a  master  hand,  and  with  •  a  mi- 
nuteness of  detail,  that,  after  perusing  his  books,  left  nothing  to 
be  learned  regarding  their  habits,  characteristics,  and  language. 
With  regard  to  the  latter,  I  felt  myself  capable  of  conversing 
with  an  average  Indian  in  his  own  language,  and  of  making 
myself  understood.  It  always  flatters  a  foreigner  to  speak  to 
him  in  his  native  language. 

I  thought  I  would  open  the  conversation,  or  interview,  after 
this  fashion  :  — 

"Does  my  brother,  the  great  chief  of  the  Muscogees,  ever 
indulge  in  the  spiked  ice-water  of  the  pale-faces  ? " 

He  would  reply,  "  The  pale-faced  hunter  is  kind  :  the  sachem 
of  the  Muscogees  is  thirsty,  and  he  don't  care  if  he  should." 

And  then,  while  discussing  the  national  beverage,  we  would 
continue,  — 

"  My  red  brother  does  not  know  my  name.  It  is  well  that  I 
should  tell  him,  that  he  may  know  to  whom  he  speaks." 

"  Wah  !  that  is  useless.  I  know  that  my  white  brother  is  a 
great  chief.  He  drinks  fire-water  like  a  veteran.  Yet,  let  him 
speak  :  the  ears  of  the  red  brother  are  open." 

"  Howling  Jews-Harp  sees  before  him  an  American  citizen, 
an  author,  a  writer,  a  man  who  tells  the  truth.  His  weapons  are 
the  pen  and  the  scissors.  His  tongue  is  not  forked." 

"  Good  !  Let  my  brother  open  his  ears  :  a  chief  is  about  to 
speak.  Howling  Jews-Harp  is  aTenowned  warrior.  His  name 
makes  the  Comanches  tremble  like  squaws.  The  Comanches 
are  dogs.  Many  scalps  hang  in  the  smoke  of  his  wigwam. 
Howling  Jews-Harp  is  a  sachem  of  his  tribe.  Three  hundred 
warriors  will  follow  him  on  the  war-path.  The  Muscogees  are 
men." 

So,  thought  I,  as  this  imaginative  dialogue  in  the  figurative 
language  of  the  forest-children  passed  through  my  mind  —  so 
we  shall  converse  together ;  and  the  noble  red  man  may,  per- 
chance, invite  me  to  his  village,  to  share  with  him  in  the 
dangers  and  the  pleasures  of  the  chase.  The  thought  was 
delightful ;  but  I  did  not  have  time  to  think  much,  for  the 


56  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

doctor  was  as  enthusiastic  as  I  was,  and  we  hurried  off  to  find 
the  Indians,  and  to  enjoy  some  of  their  "  bursts  of  wild,  un- 
premeditated eloquence." 

After  passing  down  Main  Street,  and  turning  into  the  market 
square,  we  descried  the  object  of  our  search,  —  three  solitary 
horsemen  riding  on  little  ponies.  One  after  the  other,  they 
slowly  filed  up  the  street.  Their  ponies  were  the  most  miser- 
able specimens  of  the  equine  race  I  had  ever  seen.  The  doc- 
tor said  that  they  would  require  to  be  blanketed  before  they 
would  be  in  a  condition  to  cast  a  shadow.  Venison  hams  and 
wild  turkey  hung  on  either  side  of  their  dilapidated  saddles. 
The  appearance  of  the  Indians  was  in  keeping  with  that  of 
their  ponies  and  equipments.  Short  of  stature,  stupid  of 
countenance,  and  ragged  in  the  matter  of  clothes,  they  were 
certainly  not  as  impressive  as  we  had  anticipated.  No  war- 
paint, no  bows  and  arrows,  no  beaded  moccasons,  no  —  yes, 
they  did  have  feathers  in  their  hair.  Cooper's  tales  were  not 
all  lies.  This,  to  me,  was  the  one  hopeful  oasis  in  the  blank 
desert  of  disappointment.  They  looked  as  if  they  had  slept  in 
a  feather  bed  that  had  sprung  a  leak  during  the  night. 

These  Indians  understand  English,  but  speak  it  as  little  as 
possible.  It  is  to  be  supposed  that  they  also  understand  the 
use  of  water ;  but  it  never  seems  to  occur  to  them  that  it  was 
meant  to  be  used,  even  in  whiskey.  At  any  rate,  water  is  a 
blessing  that  the  aborigines  have  never  been  known  to  abuse. 

I  approached  the  chief  of  the  party.  I  knew  he  was  the 
chief,  because  he  was  the  drunkest  of  the  three ;  and  all  the 
chiefs  I  had  known  were  chiefs  of  fire-departments,  and  they 
—  but  let  that  pass.  I  said,  — 

"  Does  my  red  brother  desire  to  replenish  his  depleted  ex- 
chequer by  the  sale  of  the  products  of  the  chase,  —  the  victims 
of  his  unerring  aim  ?  " 

With  a  "  burst  of  wild,  unpremeditated  eloquence,"  he  re- 
plied, — 

"  Yes,  six-bit  one  dam  heap  big  turkey." 

The  doctor  suggested,  "  Perhaps  the  chief  prefers  to  speak 
in  the  language  of  the  pale-faces.  —  Do  you  wish  to  sell  the 
game  you  have  got  ?  " 


THE  DOCTOR  DISGUSTED. 


57 


The  untutored  replied,  in  "  the  vivid,  semi-barbaric  style  of 
Homer,"  "  Wash  yar  givin'  us  ?  Much  big  dead-beat.  No 
money,  no  venison.  Sabe  ?  " 

The  doctor  weakened ;  but,  resolving  to  give  him  one  more 
trial,  he  said,  — 

"  Do  you  ever  make  garments  of  the  skins  of  the  game  you 
kill?" 

The  Indian  looked  at  the  doctor  for  a  moment ;  and  the  far- 


VISIT    TO    THE    MUSCOGEE    INDIANS. 


off  dawn  of  a  smile  illuminated  his  greasy  features,  as  he  re- 
plied, — 

"Well,  hardly  — hie  — ever." 

The  doctor  was  disgusted.  He  pulled  me  away ;  and,  as  we 
went  back  to  the  hotel,  we  talked  the  matter  over,  and  unani- 
mously agreed  that  the  Indian,  when  tamed  by  civilization  and 
diluted  with  cheap  fire-water,  was  a  miserable  fraud. 

Here  was  another  idol  broken,  another  tradition  shattered, 
a  romance  reduced  to  reality.  The  noble  savage  is  a  fraud,  a 
fiction,  a  myth.  He  does  not  exist,  he  never  did  exist ;  and 
yet  we  have  gone  on  for  years  believing  in  him,  and  even  occa- 
sionally becoming  sad  and  melancholy  when  we  thought  that 
the  last  remnants  of  a  noble  race  were  gradually  disappearing 


58  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

from  the  earth,  crowded  out  by  civilization  and  a  paternal 
government.  After  this,  in  what  shall  we  put  faith  ?  Can  we 
believe  any  thing  ?  Science  and  patient  investigation  are  mak- 
ing astonishing  revelations.  The  truth  of  yesterday  is  the 
error  of  to-day.  The  orthodox  doctrines  of  our  youth  become 
heterodox  as  we  advance  in  life.  The  day  may  soon  come 
when  the  children  of  this  world  will  have  become  so  wise  in 
their  generation,  that  the  fumes  of  a  sulphur  match  will  be 
unsuggestive  of  a  state  of  existence  beyond  the  sunset  glow  of 
this  life,  and  when  men  will  be  asked  to  believe  that  there 
never  was  such  a  thing  as  an  Havana-filled  five-cent  cigar. 
Even  now  scepticism  has  advanced  so  far,  that  we  are  solemnly 
assured  that  there  never  were  any  good  old  times  when  politi- 
cians were  honest.  It  has  even  been  hinted  that  Benjamin 
Franklin  was  not  really  the  inventor  of  the  cooking-stove  bear- 
ing his  name.  Shall  we,  in  like  manner,  be  asked  to  give  up 
our  faith  in  Jonah,  Sindbad  the  sailor,  and  other  historic  men 
and  things  ?  We  had  believed  all  the  stories  about  the  straight 
tongue  of  the  Indian  ;  we  had  believed  that  the  poetic  and  fig- 
urative language  of  the  dusky  savage  was  a  reality.  May  we 
not  be  asked  some  day  to  believe  that  the  blank  verse  spoken 
by  the  king  and  courtiers  of  Shakspeare's  time  was  but  the 
creation  of  the  poet's  brain  ?  Who  knows  what  fond  delusion 
we  may  have  to  give  up,  what  ancient  tradition  we  may  have 
to  discard?  This  is  an  age  of  analysis,  investigation,  and 
reality ;  and,  in  the  light  of  experience  and  research,  many 
of  the  world's  beliefs  have  been  examined,  and  found  to 
have  been  but  the  hallucinations  of  a  perturbed  brain,  the  off- 
spring of  unsubstantial  romance,  the  children  of  a  mendacious 
chronicler. 

The  Houstonians  are  deserving  of  much  credit  for  the  enter- 
prise they  have  exhibited,  not  only  in  building  up  their  own 
city,  but  in  developing  the  resources  of  the  vast  territory 
through  which  they  have  built  railroads.  Houston,  situated  at 
the  head  of  navigation  on  Buffalo  Bayou,  and  being  the  point 
of  connection  for  numerous  railroads,  offers  advantages  to  manu- 
facturers that  are  not  excelled  in  any  other  spot  in  the  South  ; 
and,  no  doubt,  ere  long  these  advantages  will  be  recognized  by 


THE  FUTURE    OF  HOUSTON. 


59 


capitalists,  and  Houston  will  be  noisy  with  the  rattle  of  the 
loom  and  the  sound  of  the  trip-hammer.  Already  Houston's 
capital  and  enterprise  have  built  a  cotton-factory  and  several 
iron-founderies ;  but  these  are  only  the  acorns  from  which  the 
wide-spreading  oak  of  industries  may  yet  grow. 


6o 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    V. 


THE  second  morning  after  our  ar- 
rival in  Houston,  the  doctor  and  I 
I.  started  out  in    search    of   horses. 

;H 

We  wanted  to  buy  two  saddle- 
ponies.  We  had  often  heard  of 
the  wonderful  endurance  of  the 
native  Texas  horse  ;  we  were  fa- 
miliar with  oft-told  tales  of  the 
long  journeys  he  was  capable  of 
making,  with  grass  as  the  only 
item  on  his  bill  of  fare ;  and  we  had  been  advised,  in  view  of 
the  lengthy  trip  we  purposed  making  in  the  saddle,  that  the 
native  pony  was  preferable  to  the  larger  and  more  showy  ani- 
mal "from  the  States."  Learning  that  there  was  a  caballada 
(herd  of  horses  —  Texanized  pronunciation,  kavey-yard)  in  a 
corral  about  three  miles  from  town,  we  procured  a  hack,  and 
proceeded  in  the  direction  indicated  by  our  informant.  Now, 
thought  I,  we  shall  at  last  see  the  wild  steed  of  the  prairie,  — 
the  mustang,  with  distended  nostrils  and  flowing  mane,  whose 
pictures  grace  the  pages  of  frontier  literature,  wherewhe  is  de- 
picted in  the  act  of  leaping  tremendous  chasms,  breasting 
raging  torrents,  and  invariably  carrying  his  rider  safely  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  pursuing  Indians.  To  own  one  of  these 
fiery  and  untamed  steeds,  and  on  his  back  to  sweep  across  the 
boundless  prairies  of  the  West,  had  been  the  fond  ambition  of 
my  boyhood.  Now  that  I  was  so  near  the  consummation  of 
the  hopes  of  my  salad  days,  thrills  of  anticipated  pleasure 
warmed  my  blood  ;  and  I  eagerly  strained  my  eyes  to  catch 
the  first  glimpse  of  the  noble  animal,  while  the  doctor  softly 
murmured,  — 


THE    CASTILIAN  CABALLO.  6 1 

"  When  troubled  in  spirit,  when  weary  of  life, 
When  I  faint  'neath  its  burdens,  and  shrink  from  its  strife, 
No  counsel  I  ask,  no  pity  I  need ; 
But  bring  me,  oh  !  bring  me  a  gallant  young  steed." 

Out  beyond  the  city  limits  a  mile  or  two,  driving  over  the 
prairie,  and  we  came  within  sight  of  a  herd  of  horses.  Some 
were  inside  a  corral :  others  were  being  driven  in  by  three  or 
four  wild-looking  men  on  horseback.  These  men  were  urging 
the  frightened  horses  with  swinging  lassos,  accompanying 
their  gestures  with  yells  unearthly  and  language  sulphureous. 

There  were  about  one  hundred  horses   in   all ;   but   among 


THE    CASTILIAN    CABALLO. 


them  where  was  the  ideal  courser  of  the  plains?  "Where," 
cried  I,  "  is  the  fiery  descendant  of  the  noble  Castilian  caballo?" 
and  echo,  if  there  had  been  such  a  thing  as  an  echo  around, 
would  have  experienced  considerable  difficulty  in  stating  ex- 
actly where. 

Imagine  a  boy  forming  his  ideas  of  the  wild  and  hairy  sea- 
horse (imported  at  great  expense  from  the  deserts  of  Africa, 
only  living  specimen  now  on  exhibition)  from  the  gaudy  pic- 
tures on  the  circus  show-bill,  and  then  think  of  him  when 
he  has  worn  himself  round-shouldered  carrying  water  to  the 
elephant,  and  having  gained  admittance  to  the  great  moral 
exhibition  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow  and  the  kink  in  his  neck, 
as  it  were  —  imagine  the  feelings  of  this  boy,  as  he  stands 
before  the  cage  looking  on  the  miserable  original  of  the  pic- 


62  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

ture.  Imagine  an  unsophisticated  frontiersman,  whose  notions 
of  statesmen  have  been  gathered  from  the  lives  of  Washington, 
Adams,  and  Jefferson,  journeying  from  the  gateway  of  the 
setting  sun  to  the  national  capital,  that  he  may  gaze  on  that 
other  great  moral  show,  the  combined  intellect  of  a  nation 
concentrated  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  and  then  fancy  his  feel- 
ings on  being  brought  face  to  face  with  the  actual  menagerie. 
Then,  when  your  mind's  eye  has  become  moist  gazing  on  these 
imaginary  pictures,  you  will  be  in  a  proper  frame  of  mind  to 
sympathize  with  me ;  and  you  will  have  some  idea  of  my  feel- 
ings, as  I  stood,  not  exactly  rooted  to  the  spot,  but  ankle-deep 
in  mud,  and  saw  the  glittering  dream  of  my  youth  fade  away 
into  the  realms  of  stern  reality. 

I  saw  about  one  hundred  poor,  lean  ponies  of  all  imaginable 
colors,  and  of  a  style  and  build  that  would  suggest  the  possi- 
bility of  offspring  resulting  from  the  union  of  a  clothes-horse 
with  a  night-mare.  They  were  unshod,  branded  on  hips  and 
shoulders  with  extraordinary  alphabetical  vagaries  and  idiotic 
monograms,  and  they  were  evidently  as  ignorant  of  the  uses  of 
a  curry-comb  as  the  average  Texas  justice  of  the  peace  is  of 
the  usages  of  the  law.  None  of  them  was  more  than  fourteen 
hands  high.  They  had  been  trained  to  the  extent  of  being 
what  is  called  "bridle-wise."  The  owners  said  this  meant,  that 
they  had  been  broken  to  the  saddle,  and  understood  the  use  of 
the  bridle.  From  subsequent  experience,  I  take  it  that  the  term 
merely  implies  the  fact  that  they  are  wise  enough  to  keep  out 
of  reach  of  a  bridle  whenever  it  is  possible  to  do  so. 

The  dream  of  my  boyhood  —  visions  of  the  "  fleet-limbed 
the  beautiful"  —  had  been  ruthlessly  dispelled;  and  I  brushed 
away  a  tear  shed  in  memory  of  my  trustful  and  credulous  faith, 
as  I  asked  the  doctor  what  he  was  going  to  do  about  it.  He 
seemed  to  take  a  more  cheerful  view  of  the  situation  than  I  did, 
and  replied,  with  an  amount  of  levity  that  ill-befitted  the  try- 
ing hour,  "  Best  we  can  do,  you  know  ;  may  as  well  make  the 
best  of  the  circumstances.  This  Bulgarian  atrocity,  on  the 
white  horse  here,  says  he  can  select  two  ponies  that  will  carry 
us  'like  smoke.'  So  you  just  brace  up  your  imagination,  and 
create  merit  in  the  brutes  where  it  is  lacking.  As  the  poet  says,  — 


THE    CLAYBANK  PONY.  63 

" '  Get  thee  glass  eyes, 
And,  like  a  scurvy  politician,  seem 
To  see  the  thing  thou  dost  not.'  " 

We  climbed  on  the  rails  of  the  corral,  and  selected  two 
specimens  of  the  noblest  of  domestic  animals,  —  the  mildest, 
meekest  looking  we  could  see.  One  of  the  men  in  charge 
rode  in  amid  the  hurricane  of  kicking  ponies,  and  lassoed 
those  we  had  pointed  out.  Tying  the  home  end  of  the  lasso  to 
the  horn  of  his  saddle,  he  dragged  them,  one  at  a  time,  outside 
of  the  enclosure. 

One  of  the  ponies  was  of  a  pale  dun  color,  frescoed  with 
tufts  of  last  season's  hair,  and  chunks  of  this  season's  mud :  the 
other  was  what  is  known  as  a  "  claybank,"  the  name  being 
suggested  by  the  natural  color  of  the  animal.  A  man  once 
told  me  that  "it  is  not  necessary  that  picturesque  objects  should 
be  of  great  size :  it  is  enough  if  they  are  rough  and  scraggy, 
and  have  forms  characterized  by  sudden  variations."  This 
definition  occurred  to  me,  as  I  refreshed  my  eye  with  a  survey 
of  our  purchase  ;  and  I  realized  the  fact,  that  never  before  had 
it  been  my  privilege  to  see  so  much  picturesque  scenery  dis- 
posed of  for  the  paltry  sum  of  fifty  dollars  in  specie.  For  that 
sum  the  ponies  were  to  be  delivered  at  a  certain  stable  in  town. 
We  drove  back  to  our  hotel  in  time  for  dinner,  after  which  we 
made  preparations  to  leave. 

As  we  intended,  for  some  days  at  least,  to  trust  for  food  to 
such  supplies  as  we  might  obtain  at  the  plantations  and  ranches 
along  the  route,  we  did  not  trouble  ourselves  with  cooking- 
utensils.  Our  saddle-bags  contained  our  small  necessities,  our 
rifles  were  strapped  to  the  sides  of  our  saddles,  our  stake-ropes 
hung  on  the  pommel,  and  our  blankets  were  rolled  up  and  tied 
behind. 

I  looked  at  the  huge  Texas  saddle,  with  its  high  pommel,  its 
wealth  of  leather  flap  and  dangling  rawhide  thongs,  its  won- 
derful stirrups,  and  freight  of  rifle,  saddle-bags,  and  blanket,  — 
all  on  the  back  of  my  little  pony,  thirteen  and  a  half  hands 
high,  —  and  I  thought  of  Falstaff's  "  ha'-penny  worth  of  bread 
to  all  that  quantity  of  sack." 

At  one  o'clock  we  were  all   aboard  ;   and,  after  a  sonorous 


64  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

smile  at  the  landlord's  parting  lie,  we  got  fairly  started  on  our 
long  ride  through  the  wilds  and  wiles  of  Texas. 

Our  intention  was  to  end  the  first  section  of  our  ride  at  the 
ancient  city  of  San  Antonio,  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  west 
of  Houston ;  the  route  being  through  the  rich  sugar  and  cotton 
lands  of  the  lower  Brazos,  and  over  the  great  stock  range  of 
the  Gaudalupe  and  the  San  Marcos.  Our  course  beyond  San 
Antonio  we  left  to  be  decided  by  circumstances. 

The  start  promised  well.  Our  ponies  stepped  out  briskly  ;  and 
soon  we  were  on  the  open  prairie,  out  of  sight  of  Houston,  and 
measuring  off  real  estate  at  the  rate  of  five  miles  an  hour.  For 
about  fifteen  miles  the  country  is  level  prairie,  with  occasional 
motts,  or  islands  of  timber,  on  it.  It  seems  strange,  that,  being 
so  near  a  city,  more  of  this  land  is  not  cultivated.  The  only 
reason  I  heard  given  was,  that  the  soil  was  "  sorry,"  and  not  as 
good  as  in  other  parts  of  the  State ;  yet  the  very  native  who 
advanced  this  as  a  reason  showed  me  a  field  on  which  last  year 
he  had  raised  three  crops  of  potatoes,  using  no  manure.  In 
January  he  planted  Irish  potatoes,  and  dug  them  in  April.  He 
then  planted  sweet  potatoes,  which  he  harvested  in  time  to 
plant  Irish  potatoes, — some  time  in  September,  I  think.  The 
yield  averaged  each  crop  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  bushels 
to  the  acre.  They  call  this  sorry  soil.  In  the  name  of  all 
that  is  prolific,  may  I  ask  what  would  satisfy  these  pampered 
Texans  ?  If  they  had  been  farming  down  in  Egypt  in  the 
years  of  plenty,  when  Joseph  was  buying  futures,  and  fixing 
for  a  corner  in  corn,  I  have  no  doubt  they  would  have  grum- 
bled at  the  smallness  of  the  yield,  and  would  have  claimed,  that 
if  it  had  not  been  quite  so  dry,  or  if  they  had  had  a  little  more 
rain,  there  might  have  been  over  half  a  crop  made. 

Land  that  would  be  considered  excellent  in  other  and  less- 
favored  countries  is  here  neglected  because  there  is  so  much 
better  land  to  be  found,  probably  a  short  distance  off,  and  be- 
cause that  in  the  State  there  is  such  a  wealth  of  this  phenom- 
enally productive  land.  There  is  no  country  of  the  same  size 
on  earth  where  there  is  so  small  a  proportion  of  poor  or  waste 
land.  It  is  almost  impossibly,  from  figures,  to  get  an  accurate 
idea  of  the  immense  extent  of  Texas. 


IMMENSE  EXTENT  OF  TEXAS.  65 

A  man  once  told  me  that  "  figures  don't  lie."  He  was  an 
honest  man :  at  least,  he  never  had  been  cashier  of  a  savings- 
bank,  nor  held  an  office  in  his  life.  I  believe  his  statement ; 
but  though  figures  could  not  lie,  even  if  they  so  desired,  yet 
they  do  not  tell  the  whole  truth  when  they  get  mixed  up  into 
the  hundreds  of  thousands,  or,  rather,  they  don't  convey  the 
full  compass  of  an  idea  to  our  finite  minds.  Comparison  is  the 
only  way  by  which  we  can  realize  quantity.  From  north  to 
south,  Texas  measures  670  miles  ;  from  east  to  west,  825  miles. 
Inside  her  boundaries  are  175,000,000  of  acres  of  land,  or  275,- 
ooo  square  miles  of  territory.  Texas  contains  an  area  as  large 
as  France  and  Spain  together.  Take  the  States  of  Ohio,  Mary- 
land, and  Virginia ;  add  to  them  the  States  of  New  York,  Dela- 
ware, and  Pennsylvania ;  then,  for  good  measure,  throw  in  the 
whole  of  the  six  New-England  States,  —  and  the  area  of  all 
these  States  combined  will  not  equal  that  of  the  great  S.tate  of 
Texas.  It  extends  over  ten  degrees  of  latitude,  and  from  the 
sixteenth  to  the  thirtieth  degree  of  longitude  west  from  Wash- 
ington. It  has  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  counties :  some 
of  the  largest  —  Tom  Green  or  Crockett,  for  instance  —  are 
each  as  large  as  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 

France  has  a  population  of  175  to  the  square  mile:  at  that 
rate,  Texas  could  support  a  population  of  48,000,000.  Great 
Britain  has  260  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile :  at  that  rate, 
Texas  could  support  70,000,000  people. 

Within  her  borders  can  be  found  an  immense  variety  of  prod- 
ucts. The  soil  is  probably  the  most  fertile  and  productive  in 
the  known  world.  Cotton,  corn,  sugar-cane,  barley,  and  almost 
all  the  known  cereals,  grow  side  by  side  with  the  fruits  of  the 
tropics  and  the  hardy  plants  of  the  more  northern  regions. 

Texas  produces  nearly  a  million  bales  of  cotton  annually,  — 
about  a  fifth  of  the  total  cotton-crop  of  the  United  States,  — 
and  has  land  enough  suitable  for  cotton  to  produce  five  times 
as  much  cotton  as  is  now  grown  in  the  whole  world.  About 
fifty  thousand  square  miles  is  estimated  as  the  wheat  region. 

Texas,  with  her  vast  natural  resources,  her  pasturage  for 
millions  of  cattle  and  sheep,  he*  immense  extent  of  farming- 
lands,  and  her  countless  riches  in  ores  and  minerals,  is  pre- 
s 


66  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

pared  to  support  a  population  even  more  dense  than  that  of 
the  most  populous  country  of  the  world.  This  is  not  a  mere 
statement,  but  a  matter  of  calculation  and  figures.  With  a 
climate  that  allows  of  labor  in  the  field  all  the  year  round, 
with  skies  of  more  than  Italian  softness,  and  with  an  atmos- 
phere so  pure  that  it  is  the  luxury  of  a  stranger's  life  to  breathe 
it,  is  it  any  wonder  that  the  native  Texan  is  usually  a  large  man, 
loud  of  speech,  and  inclined  to  boastfulness  ?  Considering  his 
favorable  surroundings,  should  we  blame  him  if  he  does  occa- 
sionally speak  in  Italics,  and  swear  in  large  capitals  ? 

Texas  is  divided  into  three  great  natural  divisions,  —  first, 
the  coast  country,  almost  a  thousand  miles  in  length,  and  run- 
ning inland  about  a  hundred  miles  ;  second,  Central  Texas,  the 
great  grain  and  cotton  belt  ;  third,  the  vast  prairies  and  table- 
lands stretching  out  to  the  western  boundary  of  the  State, 
the  home  of  the  stockman,  the  Indian,  and  the  buffalo.  Of 
these  divisions  there  are  many  subdivisions.  There  is  such 
variety  in  scenery,  soil,  and  products,  that  a  description  of  any 
one  section  or  division  would  not,  even  in  general  terms,  prop- 
erly describe  any  other  division. 

Until  a  few  years  ago,  the  outside  world  knew  very  little 
about  Texas  ;  and  a  great  deal  of  that  little  was  merely  in- 
vented history  and  unsubstantial  romance.  Texas  was  form- 
erly regarded  as  the  home  of  the  murderous  Indian,  and  the 
refuge  of  the  equally  murderous  criminal  who  had  escaped 
from  justice  in  the  older  States.  Before  the  civil  war,  when 
a  murder  was  committed  in  the  older  States,  or  when  a  Sun- 
day-school superintendent  appropriated  funds  from  the  bank 
of  which  he  was  cashier,  newspaper  accounts  of  such  indiscre- 
tions invariably  ended  with  the  laconic  announcement,  "  Gone 
to  Texas." 

They  tell  of  a  criminal  in  Eastern  Texas,  who,  thirty  years 
ago,  was  under  arrest  for  horse-stealing.  His  lawyer  told  him 
that  his  case  was  a  desperate  one.  "  You  will  assuredly  be 
convicted  on  the  evidence,"  said  he,  "and  then  you  will  be 
hung.  My  advice  to  you  is  to  try  and  make  your  escape." 

"  Escape  !  Where  ?  "  said  the  horse-thief.  "  For  Heaven's 
sake,  where  can  I  escape  to  ?  Sure,  /';//  in  Texas  now  !  " 


LAND   OF  DESPERADOES.  67 

In  those  days  society  in  Texas  was  but  little  better  than  it 
is  to-day  in  Chicago  or  Brooklyn  ;  and  there  was  good  reason 
for  the  famous  remark  of  Gen.  Sheridan,  that,  if  he  owned  both 
Texas  and  the  residence  of  the  father  of  lies,  he  would  rent  out 
Texas,  and  live  in  the  other  place. 

Now  that  Texas  is  opened  to  the  world  by  railroads,  igno- 
rance regarding  the  great  changes  that  have  taken  place  is 
inexcusable  ;  yet  there  are  intelligent  human  beings  in  the 
United  States  who  still  look  on  Texas  as  the  land  of  despera- 
does and  long-horned  cattle. 

As  an  illustration  of  this,  and  an  evidence  that  there  are  depths 
of  geographical  ignorance  in  the  foreign  mind  that  have  never 
yet  been  fathomed,  I  quote  the  following  from  the  London 
(Eng.)  "  Spectator  "  of  a  late  date  :  — 

"John  Wesley  Hardin,  a  noted  divine,  has  perpetrated  one  of  those  acts 
so  eminently  characteristic  of  American  civilization ;  and  we  call  attention  to 
it  as  an  average  example  of  the  mode  of  administering  justice  in  the  United 
States.  Texas  is  one  of  those  wild  border-States,  located  on  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  bordering  on  the  Rio  Grande.  The  city  of  Comanche  is  a 
flourishing  town,  whose  population  is  composed  largely  of  desperadoes  and 
Comanche  Indians  from  Indiana.  About  two  years  ago,  Hardin,  who  was  a 
religious  fanatic,  went  inside  a  saloon,  and,  without  the  least  provocation, 
shot  and  killed  Sheriff  Webber,  and  then  commenced  an  indiscriminate 
slaughter  of  men,  women,  and  children.  This  led  to  a  general  engagement 
between  the  whites  and  the  Indians,  which  was  finally  put  down  by  a  regi- 
ment of  Texas  cavalry  called  the  Rangers,  but  not  till  many  lives  had  been 
sacrificed.  During  the  battle  Hardin  escaped,  and  has  ever  since  been  a 
terror  to  that  region.  The  chief  judge  of  the  province  had  to  be  escorted 
from  one  county  to  another  under  guard  of  a  company  of  Rangers  and  a 
battery  of  Catling  guns,  which  inspired  terror  to  the  savages  led  by  Hardin. 
The  daring  leader  has  at  length  been  captured,  and  sentenced  to  two-years' 
penal  servitude.  The  people  are  very  superstitious,  and  look  on  the  des- 
perado as  a  much-abused  individual." 

The  American  civilization  that  necessitates  the  "chief  judge 
of  the  province  "  being  escorted  by  "a  battery  of  Gatlingguns," 
is  something  that  these  people  —  who  can  get  up  bloody  riots 
in  their  own  "  provinces  "  on  fifteen-minutes'  notice  —  shudder 
to  think  of.  A  thousand-pound  derrick  might  hoist  the  beam 
out  of  their  jaundiced  eye.  And  then  the  "Comanche  Indians 


68  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

from  Indiana!"  —  but  the  subject  is  too  painful.  Let  us, 
therefore,  resume  the  narrative  of  our  equestrian  progress. 

For  three  hours  after  leaving  Houston,  we  had  been  riding 
over  what  seemed  an  interminable  prairie,  with  nothing  to 
relieve  the  eye  on  either  side,  except  immense  herds  of  cattle 
feeding  on  the  luxuriant  prairie-grass.  The  blank  waste  and 
immensity  of  a  prairie  cannot  be  described  :  it  must  be  seen, 
before  you  can  realize  that  such  an  extent  of  flatness  exists  on 
this  terrestrial  clod.  On  either  side,  away  out  to  the  horizon, 
the  country  is  as  level  as  the  sea.  You  are  in  the  centre  of  a 
vast  ocean  of  dry  land.  There  are  no  familiar  objects  in  sight. 
You  feel  —  if  you  are  at  all  imaginative,  or  have  freely  used 
your  pocket-flask  —  as  if,  somehow,  you  have  got  off  on  a  new 
planet  that  is  sailing  through  space  on  its  own  account.  The 
sky  seems  to  be  bluer  and  clearer,  the  air  purer,  and  the  sun  to 
shine  more  brightly  than  on  the  old  earth  you  have  been  accus- 
tomed to.  The  eager  striving  for  the  possession  of  dollars  and 
cents  does  not  seem  to  you  now  to  be  the  chief  end  of  man, 
but,  rather,  a  sad  and  pitiful  exhibition  of  human  weakness  and 
inconsistency.  Your  mind  will  expand  in  keeping  with  the 
vastness  of  your  surroundings,  and  will  be  filled  with  wonder 
and  awe,  as  you  gaze  on  the  immensity  and  beauty  of  the 
Creator's  handiwork,  until  you  are  lost  in  admiration  and  rap- 
ture, and  long  for  the  hour  when  your  day's  journey  shall  end 
at  some  farm-yard  gate,  where  the  aroma  of  the  frying  sections 
of  a  dismembered  hog  will  bring  you  back  from  the  realms  of 
sentiment  to  the  stomachic  realities  of  this  life. 

Our  ponies  moved  along  with  an  air  of  resignation  and  lan- 
guor that  was  not  at  all  in  keeping  with  the  liveliness  they 
exhibited  in  the  morning.  This,  however,  was  rather  gratify- 
ing than  otherwise  ;  for  it  dispelled  fears  and  misgivings  we  had, 
that  our  lately  acquired  purchases  might  have  been  "bucking- 
ponies."  The  majority  of  Texas,  ponies  buck,  or  pitch  as  it  is 
sometimes  termed,  whenever  circumstances  seem  to  demand 
an  exhibition  of  this  facetious  freak,  or  the  condition  of  things 
seems  to  justify  the  sportive  caprice.  They  usually  exhibit 
this  idiosyncrasy  of  character  when  first  mounted  in  the  morn- 
ing, but  are  liable  to  break  out  in  pitching-spells  at  intervals 


BUCKING  PONIES.  69 

all  through  the  day.  In  fact,  some  ponies  will  buck  for  hours, 
only  stopping  to  get  breath  for  a  fresh  start.  This  kind  is 
recommended  for  the  use  of  dyspeptics,  and  invalids  suffering 
from  torpidity  of  liver.  A  pitching  mustang,  when  working  on 
full  time,  and  strictly  devoting  his  attention  to  business,  is  the 
most  moving  sight  I  ever  beheld.  His  spine  seems  to  be  of 
whalebone ;  and  he  appears  to  possess  all  the  elements  of  a 
steamboat  explosion,  a  high-pressure  pile-driver,  and  an  earth- 
quake, in  addition  to  the  enthusiasm  of  a  county  convention. 

We  were  glad  to  find  that  ours  were  not  bucking-ponies,  and 
we  congratulated  each  other  on  the  fortunate  circumstance. 
Of  course,  as  we  argued,  if  there  had  been  any  buck  in  them, 
it  would  have  developed  itself  at  an  early  stage  in  the  journey. 
Understand,  we  were  not  afraid ;  for  did  the  doctor  not  make 
the  assertion  that  he  had  often  followed  the  hounds  in  Eng- 
land, and  only  once  had  he  been  thrown  ?  and  had  I  not  ridden 
ninety  miles  on  a  buckboard,  that  most  atrocious  of  all  four- 
wheeled  vehicles,  and  arrived  at  my  destination  with  no 
worse  accident  than  a  broken  leg  or  two  ?  No,  we  were  not 
afraid  of  being  thrown  :  we  did  not  number  that  among  the 
possibilities.  The  fact  was,  that,  besides  the  weather  being 
warm,  we  did  not  need  shaking  up,  and  were  therefore  preju- 
diced against  any  violent  exercise. 

I  always  liked  that  fancy  of  the  old  saints  and  sinners  we 
read  of  in  the  good  book,  —  the  giving  to  each  other  names  sug- 
gestive of  some  peculiar  trait  or  atrocity  of  character.  Con- 
forming to  that  old  custom,  I  named  my  pony  "  Deliberation," 
the  name  seemed  so  appropriate ;  he  moved  along  in  such  a 
deliberate,  solemn  way, — no  pomp  and  circumstance  about 
him;  and  he  was  so  gentle  and  tranquil,  nothing  seemed  to 
flurry  him.  You  could  throw  the  reins  on  his  neck,  and  strike 
a  match  on  the  pommel  of  the  saddle.  I  say  you  could  do  this  : 
but  the  after-fate  of  that  match  would  be  of  no  moment  to 
you ;  you  would  be  otherwise  engaged.  I  regret  to  say  that 
I  tried  the  experiment.  I  lighted  a  match :  at  least,  I  think  I 
did  ;  but  there  was  a  haziness  about  the  subsequent  proceedings 
that  prevents  accuracy  of  statement.  I  distinctly  remember 
striking  the  match.  At  that  moment,  however,  I  was  fluently 


70  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

propelled  upwards  :  a  tornado  caught  me,  whirled  me  a'round 
eleven  times.  As  I  came  down,  a  pile-driver  drove  me  once  in 
the  stomach  ;  and  I  came  to  earth  with  that  sensation  (only 
intensified)  that  a  man  feels  who  sits  down  in  what  he  imagines 
to  be  a  high  chair,  and  which  he  afterwards  thinks  was  about 
seven  feet  lower  than  his  estimate.  I  saw  whole  milky  ways 
of  constellations  that  never  before  existed.  I  realized,  for  the 
first  time,  the  dense  solidity  of  the  earth,  and  made  the  aston- 
ishing discovery,  that,  under  certain  circumstances,  our  planet, 


instead  of  revolving  on  its  own  axis  once  in  every  twenty-four 
hours,  can  rush  around  at  the  rate  of  at  least  one  hundred 
revolutions  a  minute.  There  is  not  in  the  whole  range  of  lan- 
guage, ancient,  modern,  or  profane,  terms  sufficiently  expressive 
to  describe  the  state  of  my  feelings,  the  amount  of  mud  on  my 
person,  or  the  chaotic  condition  of  my  brain.  As  soon  as  the 
earth  settled  down  to  the  usual  speed  of  her  diurnal  motion,  I 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  not  always  best  to  judge  by 
appearances.  I  had  been  hasty  in  bestowing  a  distinctive  cog- 


BUCKED.  71 

nomen  on  my  erratic  steed.  He  had  no  more  deliberation  in 
him  than  has  a  fugitive  flea  under  the  searching  scrutiny  of  a 
determined  woman.  I  renamed  him.  This  time  I  called  him 
"Delay,"  because  delay  is  —  but  it  does  not  matter.  Come  to 
think  of  it  since,  the  reason  was  weak.  If,  however,  the  reader 
should  pierce  the  intricate  labyrinth  of  mental  ingenuity  that 
constitutes  the  conundrum,  I  trust  he  will  be  charitable  enough 
to  consider  the  circumstances  connected  with  its  perpetration. 

There  are  times  that  try  men's  souls.  There  are  seasons  in 
every  Christian's  life  when  he  wishes  he  was  not  a  church- 
member  for  just  about  five  minutes,  that  he  might  have  a 
chance  to  do  justice  to  the  surroundings.  Such,  to  me,  was 
the  trying  moment  when  I  gathered  my  bruised  remains  to- 
gether, and,  looking  around,  saw  the  festive  "Delay"  quietly 
eating  grass,  while  a  little  distance  off  sat  the  doctor  on  his 
pony,  complacently  whistling,  "Earth  hath  no  sorrow  that 
Heaven  cannot  heal." 


72  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


THE  prairie  we  rode  into 
the  wooded  country  of  the 
Brazos  bottom,  in  Fort 
Bend  County.  The  course  of  the  Brazos  is  about  as  straight  as 
that  of  the  average  congressman :  it  makes  a  man  dizzy  to  look 
at  it  on  the  map.  The  famous  bottoms  of  this  river  are  about 
six  miles  in  breadth.  The  soil,  which  is  altogether  alluvial,  is 
from  ten  to  twenty  feet  in  depth,  of  a  rich  chocolate  color.  I 
heard  an  Eastern  man  remark,  as  he  examined  it,  that  Brazos 
bottom  soil  would  be  considered  good  manure  in  his  country. 

The  bottom  is  timbered  with  oak,  pecan,  cottonwood,  and 
many  kinds  of  smaller  trees.  The  vine  bearing  the  mustang 
grape  assumes  enormous  proportions :  some  stems  attain  the 
thickness  of  a  man's  leg.  These  vines  climb  to  the  tops  of  the 
very  highest  trees  :  they  then  recoil,  and  are  seen  hanging  in 
magnificent  festoons,  as  if  so  arranged  by  the  hand  of  art. 

Large  quantities  of  grapes,  wild  and  uncultivated,  grow  in 
these  bottoms.  Very  few  of  them  are  gathered ;  although  it  is 
said  there  can  be  made  from  them  an  excellent  wine,  equal  to 
good  claret.  One  man  could  gather  a  wagon-load  of  them  in  a 
day.  It  is  astonishing  that  some  one  with  a  knowledge  of  wine- 
making  does  not  invest  in  this  enterprise,  the  profit  of  which, 
no  doubt,  would  be  great. 

I  have  heard  of  a  man  coming  to  Texas  expecting  to  find 
money  growing  on  the  trees,  and  I  am  told  that  he  went  away 
sorrowful  because  the  crop  did  not  equal  his  expectations.  I 


MONEY  GROWING    ON  TREES. 


73 


think  he  must  have  overlooked  this  part  of  Texas :  for  here, 
money  growing  on  trees  is  almost  a  literal  fact ;  at  least,  the 
equivalent  of  money  is  to  be  seen  weighing  down  the  branches 
on  every  side.  Energy  and  a  mule-team  is  all  the  capital  a 
man  needs  to  enable  him  to  realize  from  these  natural  sources, 
and  not  only  to  make  a  living,  but  to  accumulate  wealth. 

Pecans,  an  article  of  commerce  worth  a  dollar  and  a  half  a 
bushel,  can  be  gathered  from  the  trees  along  the  banks  in 
almost  unlimited  quantities  ;  and  on  the  Brazos,  and  all  through 
Eastern  Texas,  the  supply  of  moss — -free  to  all  who  wish  to 
gather  it  —  is  immense.  It  is  valuable  as  a  substitute  for  hair 
in  the  manufacture  of  mattresses,  cushions,  etc.  Large  quan- 
tities of  it  are  shipped  to  New  Orleans  and  other  points. 
Some  people  have  a  prejudice  against  it.  They  say  its  pres- 
ence is  indicative  of  chills  and  other  sickness.  I  once  heard  a 
learned  native  use  strong  terms  in  speaking  of  it.  He  called  it 
tillandsia  usneoides :  but  probably  he  meant  nothing  unkind  by 
his  remark ;  for  he  was  that  sort  of  man  who  calls  a  potato  "  an 
esculent  farinaceous  tuber  of  the  solanum  tuberosum  family," 
and  expresses  his  thoughts  in  polysyllabic  and  sonorous  periods, 
but  who,  somehow  or  other, 
cannot  sustain  the  strain,  and 
drops  from  the  heights  of  the 
sublime  to  the  plains  of  the 
ridiculous  with  painful  celer- 

fry. 

I  met  him  once  on  a  wet 
day,  toiling  on  foot  up  a  rocky 
road  in  Western  Texas.  In 
the  course  of  our  conversa- 
tion I  happened  to  remark 

that  there  seemed  to  be  a  useless  profusion  of  good  building- 
material  in  that  out-of-the-way  place. 

Said  he,  "  My  dear  young  man,  in  these  scenes  of  grandeur 
and  sublimity,  which  forcibly  impress  the  attentive  observer  of 
nature,  there  is  nothing  without  its  use.  We  can  find  sermons 
written  upon  even  this  apparently  useless  calcareous  formation. 
I  tell  you  what  it  is,  sir,  had  not  the  Great  Architect  of  the 


EXPLAINING    ROCKS. 


74  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

universe,  in  his  mighty  wisdom,  when  in  the  gray  dawn  of 
creation  he  brought  order  out  of  chaos  —  had  he  not  formed 
these  stones  and  placed  them  here,  I'm  gosh  durned  if  you  and 
I,  sir,  wouldn't  be  up  to  the  knees  in  mud  right  now." 

There  is  a  story  told  regarding  a  speech  once  made  by  this 
reservoir  of  flatulent  verbosity.  I  have  heard  the  story,  with 
variations,  often  repeated,  and  almost  as  often  have  I  heard  the 
speech  credited  to  some  other  person.  It  may  therefore  be 
old  to  the  reader,  but  there  is  a  breezy  freshness  about  it  that 
justifies  me  in  repeating  it.  It  runs  somewhat  after  this  fash- 
ion :  while  speaking  at  an  open-air  meeting,  he  was  interrupted 
by  a  man  in  the  crowd  who  shouted,  "  Louder  !  "  The  speaker 
raised  his  voice.  In  less  than  a  minute  the  same  man  again 
called,  "  Louder  ! "  Again  the  speaker  raised  his  voice,  until 
its  volume  reached  away  out  beyond  the  edge  of  the  crowd. 
When  the  man  for  the  third  time  called  "  Louder !  "  the  orator 
paused  for  a  second,  and  then  continued,  "  Fellow-citizens,  the 
period  will  at  last  arrive  when  the  vast  machinery  of  this  uni- 
verse must  stop,  and  all  its  wheels  be  motionless  ;  when  the 
spheres  shall  cease  to  roll,  and  all  the  defined  periods  of  time 
be  lost  in  eternity.  In  that  awful  hour,  when  the  mighty 
Gabriel  shall  descend  from  the  battlements  of  heaven,  and, 
placing  one  foot  on  the  sea  and  one  on  the  land,  shall  force  a 
blast  from  his  trumpet  that  shall  reverberate  throughout  the 
remotest  corners  of  the  universe,  some  dog-goned fool  will  holler 
'  Louder  !  Louder  !  ' ' 

Cotton,  corn,  and  sugar-cane  are  the  principal  crops  raised 
on  the  lower  Brazos.  Before  the  civil  war,  or,  as  a  Texan 
would  say,  "  'fore  the  break-up,"  this  country,  for  many  miles 
on  each  side  of  the  river,  was  divided  into  large  plantations, 
owned  by  wealthy  slave-holders.  Some  planters  owned  as 
many  as  three  hundred  slaves.  The  planters  lived  in  baronial 
style,  —  autocrats  of  estates  more  extensive  than  many  of  the 
dukedoms  of  Europe,  and  with  annual  revenues  larger  than 
those  of  the  majority  of  the  princes  of  the  Old  World.  The 
negro  quarters  on  these  great  plantations  were  small  towns, 
populous  with  the  happiest  of  dusky  humanity,  and  noisy  with 
the  hilarity  inherent  in  the  childish  Ethiopian. 


THE    OLD  PLANTATION  BEFORE  THE  WAR.      75 

Abundance  of  hog,  hominy,  hoecakes,  and  molasses ;  a  liberal 
license  in  the  matter  of  break-downs  and  camp-meetings,  —  this, 
with  Sunday  frolics,  went  to  make  the  "poor,  down-trodden 
African"  the  happiest  of  mortals  in  the  "ole  timey  days  'fore 
'mancipation."  If  they  did  get  whipped  when  they  did  what 
was  wrong,  do  we,  in  these  days  of  universal  freedom,  not  whip 
certain  of  our  criminals  ?  If  they  were  for  certain  crimes 


CAMP-MEETING    EXHORTER. 


bound  with  chains,  as  we  used  to  see  the  "  man  and  a  brother  " 
depicted  on  the  titlepage  of  abolition  tracts,  do  the  officers  of 
the  best  government  the  world  ever  saw  not  bind  with  chains 
those  who  break  the  laws  ?  If  the  black  slave  was  once  in  a 
while  compelled  to  do  laborious  tasks,  and  to  work  from  sun- 
rise until  after  sunset,  are  there  not  white  freemen  in  these 
United  States  to-day  who  are  compelled  to  toil  at  equally  hard 
labor,  the  payment  of  which  will  not  purchase  bread  and  meat 


76  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG, 

enough  to  keep  body  and  soul  together  ?  I  ask  myself  these 
questions  as  we  ride  through  what  was  once  a  plantation  rich 
in  waving  corn,  and  white  with  bursting  cotton-bolls,  now  a 
sad,  bleak  wilderness  of  weeds ;  the  once  clean  and  comfortable 
quarters,  now  wretched  hovels,  the  home  of  filth  and  pestilence ; 
the  once  palatial  residence  of  the  planter,  now  untenanted,  ex- 
cept by  the  bat  and  the  owl.  As  I  look  on  this  great  change, 
I  think  of  the  negro  slave  (whose  ancestors,  in  all  the  centuries 
of  their  existence  as  a  people,  had  never  developed  enough 
intelligence  to  build  a  bridge)  being  clothed  and  fed,  housed 
and  nursed  in  sickness,  by  their  masters  in  the  days  of  slavery. 
And  then  I  look  around,  and  I  see  the  "colored  gentleman  "  of 
to-day  indolent  and  shiftless,  filthy  and  ragged,  lying  asleep  in 
the  sun.  I  enter  his  miserable  cabin,  and  I  see  his  wife  as 
dirty  and  ragged  as  he  is.  I  find  his  children  sick,  and  on  the 
way  to  an  early  grave  for  lack  of  intelligent  care  and  medical 
aid.  As  I  listen  to  the  plaintive  song  of  the  mother,  memories 
of  the  jubilant  choruses  that  used  to  resound  through  the  old 
plantation  crowd  upon  me.  Visions  of  the  fat  old  mammy  — 
kind  to  the  children,  and  loyal  to  "ole  massa  and  missus"  —and 
of  the  superannuated  uncle,  with  his  dignity  of  bearing  and 
battered  banjo,  arise  before  me;  and  I  think  what  an  immense 
amount  of  sympathy  and  gush  regarding  the  "  fettered  bonds- 
man "  has  been  wasted.  Understand,  I  am  no  upholder  of  the 
institution  of  slavery.  As  an  evil  under  the  sun,  I  abhor  it ; 
as  a  surviving  evidence  of  barbarism,  I  am  glad  it  has  been 
numbered  with  the  things  that  were  :  but,  when  I  look  at  the 
present  and  the  past  without  prejudice,  I  can  see  that  the  col- 
ored man  of  to-day,  with  his  freedom  and  all  the  rights  of  citi- 
zenship, stands  more  in  need  of  sympathy  than  ever  did  the 
slave  of  ante-bellum  days.  It  may  be  accepted  as  a  fact,  that 
exemption  from  labor  is  the  only  idea  the  average  plantation 
negro  has  of  liberty. 

Meeting  an  aged  darkey  near  Richmond,  in  Fort  Bend 
County,  we  inquired  of  him  the  distance  to  town. 

"Well,  boss,  it's  right  smart  o'  distance  than" 

"  But  how  many  miles  is  it  ? " 

"  Well,  sah,  I  spec  it's  'bout  four  miles,  sah,  mo'  or  less." 


'WHITE    FOLKS    AIM  T    AS    GORGEOUS    AS    THEY    USED    TO    BE." 


THE  NEGRO  AS  A   SLAVE. 


77 


"  Have  you  lived  in  these  bottoms  long,  uncle  ? " 

"  Bress  yo'  heart,  chile,  I's  a  ole  pie'neer,  I  is.  I's  been  a 
slave  heah  'fo'  de  wah.  I  b'longed  to  Judge  Waters,  an'  I's 
done  rented  a  place  on  de  ole  plantation  since." 

"And  how  do  you  find  times  now,  compared  to  what  they 
were  before  emancipation  ?  " 

"  Times  is  mighty  scrimpid  now,  sah,  for  a  fac'.  It  'quires 
a  darkey  to  be  mighty  peart  in  dese  yere  times  fur  to  make  a 


THE    NEGRO    AS    A    SLAVE. 


livin' ;  an'  de  white  folks,  neither,  ain't  as  gorjus  as  dey  used  to 
be.  De  change  is  wussur  on  dem  dan  on  de  cullud  man." 

"  How  is  that,  uncle  ?  " 

"  Yo'  see,  sah,  if  yer  had  been  'customed  to  ride  in  yo'  ker- 
ridge,  an'  hev  niggers  to  wait  on  yo',  yo'd  find  it  kinder  sort  o' 
discomposin'  to  do  yer  ridin'  on  a  ole  mule,  an'  hoe  yo'  own 
row  in  a  corner  of  a  big  cotton-field,  whar  yo'  used  to  boss  fifty 
niggers.  Eben  hogs  is  a  objec'  wid  white  folks  now;  an'  dey 
makes  a  debbil  ob  a  fus  if  one  ob  der  chickens  strays  inter  a 
nigger's  lot,  an'  gits  killed  premiskus-like,  by  mistake  as  it  wur. 


78  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Yes,  boss,  times  is  changed :  times  is  hard,  sah,  sure's  yo' 
born." 

"Your  talk  would  lead  one  to  suppose  that  slavery  was 
better  than  freedom.  You  don't  want  the  old  times  back 
again,  do  you  ? " 

"  Oh,  no,  young  massa !  I  knows  it's  better  fur  de  young 
folks  dat  dey  am  free ;  but"  as  fur  me,  I'd  ratfier,  if  de  good 
Lord  willed  it,  be  gittin'  my  vittuls  in  ole  massa's  kitchen  dan 
be  skirmishin'  roun'  for  grub  like  we  has  to  do  now." 

"  But  don't  you  think,  uncle,  that  the  times  will  improve, 
and  that  the  rising  generation  of  colored  people  will  improve 
with  the  times,  and  "  — 

"  'Scuse  de  interruption,  sah  ;  but  de  risin'  generation  ob  de 
cullud  people  is  a  gwine  to  de  debbil  as  fas'  as  dey  can,  yes, 
sah,  for  a  fac'.  I  ain't  no  flossifer ;  but  I's  wrastled  wid  de 
subjec',  and  dis  yere  ole  darkey  knows  what  he  am  a  talkin' 
'bout,  sure's  yo'  a  foot  high.  De  ole  timey  niggers  ain't  got 
much  sense,  but  dey  is  hones',  an'  most  ob  dem  works ;  but  de 
young  folks  is  de  no  accountest  trash  !  Sakes  alive,  sah  !  dey 
cares  for  nuffin  but  polertics  and  whiskey.  De  boys  don't 
work,  'ceptin'  'nuff  to  git  money  fur  whiskey ;  an-'  I  say  dere 
hain't  no  God's  freedom  in  de  freedom  dat  lets  a  man  buy 
whiskey  wid  de  money  dat  should  go  fur  de  s'port  ob  his 
wife  an'  chil'un.  Yo'  hear  me  shout." 

The  old  man  stood  in  the  dusty  road,  leaning  on  a  crooked 
bois  d'arc  stick,  his  hat  in  his  hand,  and  his  bald  head  encircled 
by  a  fringe  of  white  wool  shining  in  the  sunlight.  If  he  was 
not  a  "  flossifer,"  he  was  evidently  a  preacher ;  for  his  voice,  as 
he  progressed,  grew  louder,  and  had  the  true  ring  of  the  camp- 
meeting  exhorter.  The  subject  was  one  with  which  he  had  evi- 
dently "  wrastled,"  and  over  which  he  had  no  doubt  mourned. 
He  was  prepared  to  enlarge  on  the  theme,  and  improve  the 
occasion  ;  but,  as  our  time  was  limited,  we  said  good-by.  Look- 
ing back  as  we  jogged  along,  we  saw  the  old  man  limping  up 
the  road,  and  heard  him  muttering  in  thunder  tones  something 
about  the  "no  accountness  ob  things  ginerally." 

The  sun  was  down  when  we  arrived  in  Richmond, — a  town 
of  twenty-five  hundred  inhabitants,  built  on  the  bank  of  the 


LOS  BRAZOS  DE  DIOS.  79 

Brazos  River.  The  Spaniards  called  this  river  "  Los  Brazos  de 
Dios"  ("the  arms  of  God").  What  could  be  more  appropriate 
than  this  name?  The  strength  of  a  god  is  in  its  mighty  current, 
as  the  turbid  waters  in  the  rainy  season  rush  and  hurry  onward 
to  the  sea.  The  soil  left  by  the  receding  waters  in  past  ages 
has  made  the  "  Brazos  bottom  "  a  synonyme  of  fertility.  It  is 
an  inexhaustible  soil,  the  richest,  perhaps,  in  the  world. 

The  Brazos  affords  a  water-way  for  light-draught  crafts  for 
a  distance  of  fifty  miles  from  its  mouth.  As  the  distributer 
of  these  blessings,  it  may  well  be  called  "the  arms  of  God." 

Those  old  Spanish  pioneers  used  to  coax  the  Indians  of 
Texas  into  the  folds  of  Christianity  under  the  soothing  influ- 
ences of  the  thumb-screw  and  other  ancient  Christian  ordi- 
nances. They  were  also  in  the  habit  of  patronizing  bull  disputes 
on  Sunday.  Taking  them  altogether,  they  were  a  depraved  set ; 
but  they  did  have  some  sense  of  the  eternal  fitness  of  appro- 
priate nomenclature  when  it  came  to  naming  rivers  and  moun- 
tains. Had  a  civilized  and  enlightened  American  been  the 
discoverer  of  the  Brazos  de  Dios,  he  would  doubtless  have 
named  it  after  his  wife's  aunt,  or  in  honor  of  some  distin- 
guished alderman  in  his  native  town. 

It  was  on  the  banks  of  this  river,  that,  in  1822,  Stephen 
F.  Austin,  a  Missourian,  founded  the  first  American  colony  in 
Texas.  The  colony  consisted  of  three  hundred  families.  They 
made  their  homes  in  what  was  then  an  uninhabited  and 
unknown  country.  Under  many  disadvantages,  they  flourished, 
and  grew  in  numbers  and  wealth.  The  story  of  the  early 
struggles  of  this  colony,  the  "Old  Three  Hundred,"  as  in  after 
years  they  loved  to  be  called,  would  make  a  volume  of  extraor- 
dinary  interest,  abounding  in  tales  of  heroism,  self-sacrifice, 
and  noble  deeds. 

In  Fort  Bend  County,  before  the  war  (1860),  there  were  3,532 
negro  slaves,  valued  at  $3,139,856.  Then  taxes,  including 
State,  county,  and  poll  tax,  did  not  exceed  twenty  cents  on  the 
hundred  dollars ;  then  Brazos  bottom-land  was  worth  fifty  to 
eighty  dollars  an  acre,  and  cotton  was  worth  twenty  cents  a 
pound :  now  taxes  amount  to  seventy-five  cents  per  hundred 
dollars  ;  bottom-land  is  worth  only  five  to  ten  dollars  an  acre  ; 


80  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

cotton  sells  at  eight  cents  per  pound  ;  and  the  $3,139,856  worth 
of  negroes  run  the  county  government,  and  revel  in  the  luxury 
of  unlimited  politics. 

In  1878  the  population  of  the  county  was  estimated  at  ten 
thousand,  of  which  only  two  thousand  were  white.  All  the 
county  officers,  except  two,  were  negroes.  Is  it  any  wonder,  as 
the  old  negro  said,  "de  white  folks  ain't  as  gorjus  as  dey  used 
to  be"? 

We  crossed  the  Brazos  at  Richmond  in  a  ferryboat.  The 
Houston  and  San  Antonio  Railway  crosses  here  on  a  very  fine 
iron  bridge.  Judge  Schultz  was  a  fellow-passenger  with  us  on 
the  ferry.  The  craft  proceeded  smwly,  on  account  of  the  low 
state  of  the  river,  and  gave  the  judge  the  opportunity  to  dis- 
gorge the  following :  — 

"  You  see  that  railroad  bridge  ?  Well,  sir,  that  wasn't  there 
when  I  crossed  that  river  on  the  cars  ten  years  ago.  The  trains 
crossed  on  a  bridge  of  boats,  —  the  only  railroad  bridge  of  the 
kind  in  the  world,  sir.  The  rails  were  laid  only  a  few  feet 
above  the  water.  The  banks  are  very  high  ;  and  the  grade 
down  to  the  water  was  one  in  three,  and  the  same  up  the  other 
side.  The  engine  only  carried  over  one  car  at  a  time,  switched 
that  one  off,  and  came  back  for  another.  She  would  take  a  car 
and  back  out  on  the  track  a  few  hundred  yards,  so  as  to  get  a 
good  start,  and  then,  donner  and  blitzen  !  how  she  would  go 
down  on  one  side  with  a  zipp  and  a  bang,  and  then  up  the  other 
with  a  snort  and  a  howl !  Sometimes  she  wouldn't  hold  the 
rails  going  up ;  then  she  would  fall  back  on  the  pontoon  bridge, 
and  lie  there  till  they  brought  another  engine,  and  towed  her  up 
with  a  rope." 

The  judge,  probably  noticing  an  incredulous  glare  in  my  eye, 
continued,  — 

"  Yes,  sir,  it  is  hard  to  believe,  if  you  never  saw  it  done ;  but, 
sir,  there  is  the  very  bluff  right  before  you  to  prove  the  truth 
of  every  word  I  have  spoken." 

I  confess,  that,  before  the  judge  called  my  attention  to  the 
bluff,  I  was  inclined  to  be  a  little  incredulous :  at  least,  I 
thought  it  possible  that  perhaps  the  judge  exaggerated  some- 
what ;  I  was  willing  to  accept  his  tale  with  the  usual  discount. 


AN  UNADULTERATED  LIE. 


81 


As  soon,  however,  as  I  looked  at  the  bluff,  I  regretted  that  I 
had  harbored  a  doubt  as  to  the  judge's  veracity :  for  there  in 
the  moonlight,  towering  forty  feet  above  us,  was  the  identical 
bluff ;  and,  as  I  examined  it,  I  became  satisfied,  that,  after  all, 
the  judge's  story  was  the  —  most  unadulterated  lie  I  had  ever 
heard. 


82 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    VII. 


THE  counties  of  Fort  Bend, 
Wharton,  Colorado,  and  Bra- 
zoria,  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
the  finest  sugar-lands  in  the 
world.  Before  the  war,  there 
were  vast  sugar  -  plantations 
here.  Sugar-cane  is  still  culti- 
vated, although  not  to  such  an 
extent  as  formerly,  owing  to 
the  difficulty  of  procuring  plan- 
tation hands  suitable  for  the 
work.  It  is  a  very  profitable  crop. 

The  counties  of  Fort  Bend,  Brazoria,  Wharton,  Matagorda, 
and  the  lower  portions  of  Austin  and  Colorado,  are  the  best 
part  of  the  world  for  the  successful  and  economical  production 
of  sugar-cane.  Mr.  Freeman,  a  sugar-planter,  told  me  that  he 
was  prepared  to  prove  that  the  entire  expense  of  running  a 
sugar-plantation  in  Fort  Bend  County  is  less  than  the  annual 
expense  of  ditching  and  levee  tax  on  similar  acreage  in  the 
sugar  district  of  Louisiana. 

Sorghum  is  a  variety  of  sugar-cane,  from  which  an  inferior 
kind  of  sirup  is  made.  Large  quantities  of  it  are  cultivated  in 
the  rich  bottoms  of  the  Brazos  and  Colorado  Rivers.  Mr.  M. 
Gardner,  in  an  article  on  the  cultivation  of  sorghum,  published 
in  the  Galveston  "  News,"  says,  "  I  have  been  raising  and  mak- 
ing sirup  out  of  sorghum  for  the  past  twenty  years.  My  aver- 
age yield  of  sirup  has  been  from  eighty  to  a  hundred  and  thirty 


«  YOU  MUST  FURNISH  YOUR    OWN  BARRELS."      83 

gallons  per  acre.  When  cotton  was  bringing  fifteen  cents  and 
upwards,  I  sold  sirup  at  from  seventy-five  cents  to  one  dollar 
per  gallon.  It  costs  much  less  to  cultivate  cane  than  it  does  to 
cultivate  cotton." 

The  doctor's  pony  had  been  acting  in  a  very  unsatisfactory 
manner,  and  looked  as  if  he  were  suffering  from  lack  of  rest. 
The  doctor  wanted  to  sell  him,  and  buy  a  larger  horse.  Our 
landlord  told  him  that  a  sugar-planter  who  lived  on  the  edge 
of  town  wanted  just  such  a  pony,  and  would  give  a  good  price 
for  him  if  he  suited.  We  rode  over  to  see  the  sugar-planter, 
and  found  him  in  the  field.  The  doctor  exhibited  the  pony,  and 
made  truth  howl,  as  he  told  of  the  good  qualities  of  his  steed. 
He  (the  pony)  was  so  gentle  that  a  child  could  give  him  oats,  so 
fast  that  only  a  long-winded  man  could  ride  him,  and  he  was  in- 
capable of  fatigue,  and  was  possessed  of  extraordinary  staying- 
powers  (he  would  stay  all  day  at  a  haystack  without  showing 
the  least  fatigue).  The  planter  took  the  saddle  off  the  pony,  and 
looked  at  his  back  to  see  if  the  customary  sore  was  there.  Being 
evidently  satisfied,  he  offered  the  doctor  twenty  dollars  for  him. 

"  He  is  a  gift  from  my  poor  old  uncle,"  said  the  doctor ; 
"  and,  knowing  his  worth  as  I  do,  I  would  not  sell  him  at  any 
price  but  that  I  am  compelled  to  take  the  train  to-morrow,  that 
I  may  get  home  in  time  for  my  uncle's  funeral.  You  may  have 
him,  however,  for  forty  dollars." 

"  More  than  he  is  worth,"  said  the  planter ;  "  but  I  like  the 
looks  of  the  plug  ;  and,  if  you'll  throw  in  the  saddle  and  the 
bridle,  I'll  give  you  forty." 

"  You  can  have  him  on  those  terms,"  said  the  doctor. 

"All  right  :  just  lead  him  around,  and  hitch  him  at  the  gate 
—  but  recollect  you  must  furnish  your  own  barrels." 

"  Barrels  !     Why,  what  have  I  got  to  do  with  barrels  ?  " 

"  You  didn't  expect  to  get  forty  dollars  for  that  pony  without 
furnishing  the  barrels,  did  you  ? " 

"  What  in  Heaven's  name  do  you  want  barrels  furnished 
for  ?  "  replied  the  doctor. 

"  Well,  now,  that  beats  any  thing  !  Don't  you  know  that 
sorghum  molasses  is  legal  tender  here  ?  If  you  want  to  trade, 
that's  the  kind  cf  currency  you'll  have  to  take." 


84  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  Well,  I'll  be  —  Get  up  !  "  said  the  doctor  ;  and,  putting 
spurs  to  his  forty  dollars'  worth  of  molasses,  he  galloped  out  of 
the  field,  and  I  followed. 

We  left  Richmond  at  sunrise,  after  a  hasty  breakfast  of 
bacon,  corn-bread,  and  coffee.  In  these  warm  latitudes  it  is 
too  hot  to  travel  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  Travellers  usually 
start  at  sunrise,  and  ride  until  about  eleven  o'clock ;  then, 
selecting  a  shady  place  on  the  bank  of  a  creek,  or  near  a  water- 
hole,  where  water  for  the  horses  and  for  the  making  of  coffee 
can  be  found,  they  "noon  it."  "Nooning  it"  means  stretching 
a  rope  out  on  the  prairie,  with  a  tree  or  a  peg  at  one  end,  and  a 
horse  or  a  mule  at  the  other ;  it  means  gathering  an  armful  of 
wood  and  buffalo  chips,  and  using  up  a  lot  of  matches  and  a 
choice  assortment  of  patience  and  profane  language  in  making 
a  fire  ;  it  means  a  dinner  consisting  of  coffee,  without  sugar,  in 
a  tin  cup,  and  corn-bread  baked  in  a  dirty  skillet,  with  a  cigar- 
ette for  dessert ;  it  means  a  long  nap  after  dinner,  while  the 
industrious  ant  explores  the  deepest  recesses  of  one's  under- 
clothing, and  the  artesian  tick  digs  his  grave  in  one's  skin  ; 
and,  finally,  it  means  gathering  together  the  scant  culinary 
utensils,  hitching  up,  and  starting  off  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon. 

At  Richmond  we  had  provided  ourselves  with  all  the  neces- 
sary implements  and  accessories  for  what  is  called  "  a  camping- 
out  trip  ;  "  that  is,  a  journey  on  which  the  traveller  avoids  all 
human  habitations,  cooks  his  meals  in  the  woods  or  on  the 
plains,  and  sleeps  on  whatever  spot  of  mother-earth  nightfall 
finds  him, — a  journey  on  which  the  traveller  is  his  own  hostler, 
cook,  and  hairdresser,  and  has  to  depend  on  his  own  resources 
for  almost  every  thing,  from  the  killing  of  game  for  food  to  the 
washing  of  a  shirt  for  comfort.  Our  camping-equipment  con- 
sisted of  a  skillet,  a  coffee-pot,  a  peck  of  cornmeal,  and  a  piece 
of  fat  bacon  to  wipe  the  inside  of  the  skillet  with  as  a  prelim- 
inary to  the  making  of  corn-bread,  a  small  sack  of  ground 
coffee,  and  two  tin  cups.  It  was  when  we  were  considering 
ways  and  means  for  carrying  this  modest  outfit,  that  we  discov- 
ered what  the  many  dangling  rawhide  and  buckskin  thongs 
hanging  from  different  parts  of  our  saddles  were  for.  To  these 


MODE    OF  TRAVELLING.  85 

we  attached  the  several  articles  to  be  carried,  making  a  fair 
distribution.  The  skillet  falling  to  the  Doctor's  share,  and 
having  a  long  handle,  distressed  him  greatly  for  a  day  or  two 
by  dangling  against  his  legs,  until  he  conceived  the  novel  plan 
of  attaching  it  to  the  crupper,  and  hanging  it  over  the  stern  like 
a  rudder.  This  proved  to  be  a  very  wise  arrangement.  His 
horse,  not  being  especially  brilliant  as  to  speed,  and  being  nat- 
urally very  deliberate  in  his  movements,  was  encouraged,  by  the 
banging  of  the  rudder  on  his  legs,  to  move  sometimes  with* quite 
a  creditable  degree  of  velocity. 

We  travelled  at  a  speed  of  about  four  miles  an  hour,  winding 
our  way  through  woods  of  oak  and  elm,  where,  except  on  the 
roads,  the  underbrush  of  mustang  and  blackberry  vines  was  so 
dense  that  nothing  but  a  snake  under  indictment  for  chicken- 
stealing  would  think  of  attempting  to  pass  through. 

Out  of  these  dark  avenues,  where  the  interlaced  branches  of 
the  trees  from  either  side,  with  their  ragged  drapery  of  Spanish 
moss,  modified  the  burning  glare  of  the  noonday  sun,  and 
caused  a  mellow  twilight  to  pervade  these  forest  depths,  we 
passed  into  the  scorching  sunlight  and  over  the  flat  prairie,  our 
horses  wading  knee-deep  in  the  coarse  prairie  grass. 

There  are  many  points  of  resemblance  between  these  prairies 
and  the  ocean.  You  will  ride  and  ride  and  ride,  and  never 
seem  to  be  getting  nearer  to  any  thing.  At  last  you  see  a 
chimney  away  out  on  the  horizon  ;  then  a  roof  appears,  and, 
like  the  sails  of  a  ship,  seems  to  grow  larger  as  you  approach 
it ;  then  the  hull  —  I  mean  the  walls  of  the  house  —  appears. 

Riding  over  the  plains  is  usually  a  very  monotonous  pleasure. 
Of  course,  there  are  exceptions.  One  of  these  exceptional 
cases  is  very  fresh  in  my  memory.  It  was  on  the  second  day 
out  from  Houston,  and  we  were  on  the  open  prairie,  having 
travelled  several  hours  with  the  hot  rays  of  the  sun  shining 
upon  us.  We  became  very  thirsty.  Stopping  at  a  water-hole, 
I  dismounted,  and  handed  the  doctor  a  cup  of  water.  In  return- 
ing the  cup,  he  let  it  fall  on  the  ground,  startling  my  pony,  and 
causing  him  to  run  about  fifty  yards.  As  he  stopped  and  began 
to  graze,  I  paid  no  attention  to  the  matter,  expecting,  after 
attending  to  the  demands  of  my  thirsty  throat,  to  walk  up  to 


86  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

him,  and  mount.  He  let  me  walk  to  within  five  paces  of  his 
head.  He  had  no  objection  to  my  walk.  The  fact  is,  and  I 
regret  to  bear  witness  to  it,  he  seemed  rather  to  enjoy  seeing 
me  walk.  Just  as  I  was  about  to  reach  out  to  catch  the  bridle, 
he  walked  off.  Then  I  began  to  run  :  so  did  he.  He  evidently 
enjoyed  this  acceleration  of  speed  on  my  part,  even  more  than 
he  had  previously  enjoyed  my  walking-gait.  He  ran  a  short 
distance  with  his  head  down,  apparently  chuckling  to  himself  at 
my  discomfiture  ;  then,  throwing  his  heels  up  in  the  air,  he 
cantered  around  me  in  a  circle,  neighing  in  a  derisive  manner. 
When  I  stopped,  he  would  stop,  and  wait  until  I  would  almost 
catch  up  with  him.  He  was  always  on  the  alert,  however,  and 
stood  with  his  tail  at  full  cock,  ready  to  go  off  at  the  slightest 
increase  of  speed  in  my  movements.  What  added  to  the  interest 
of  the  entertainment  was,  that,  when  the  vile  mustang  started, 
the  coffee-pot,  and  other  loose  articles  of  virtu  attached  to  the 
saddle,  kept  flopping  around  ;  increasing  his  hilarity,  and  causing 
him  to  perform  gratuitous  antics  that  no  one  would  have  ever 
thought  the  brute  capable  of  performing.  The  result  of  this 
was,  that,  from  the  moment  he  started  to  run,  he  began  shedding 
my  portable  property,  —  loose  articles  first,  then  the  contents 
of  my  saddle-bags,  one  article  at  a  time,  —  leaving  a  train  of  tin- 
ware and  notions  to  mark  his  erratic  course.  This  necessitated 
.following  in  his  tracks,  that  I  might  pick  up  my  scattered 
belongings, — here  a  tooth-brush,  there  a  bar  of  soap;  over 
yonder,  a  towel  hanging  on  a  withered  cactus  ;  and  the  coffee- 
pot, with  the  handle  broken  and  the  lid  gone,  jammed  among 
the  thorns  ;  farther  on,  my  note-book  in  a  puddle  of  water,  and 
the  photograph  of  somebody  with  golden  hair  smiling  at  me 
out  of  a  bunch  of  violet-colored  flowers. 

It  was  a  woful  sight,  but  my  pony  was  not  the  sort  of  animal 
that  stops  at  the  sound  of  woe.  There  was  something  that 
added  to  my  bitterness  of  spirit ;  something  that  persons  of 
sedentary  habits,  who  have  lately  taken  horseback  exercise,  can 
understand  and  appreciate.  The  doctor  rode  after  my  pony, 
and  tried  to  catch  him  ;  but  this  was  a  failure  on  account  of  lack 
of  speed  on  the  part  of  the  pony  the  doctor  rode.  The  doc- 
tor's pony  did  his  best,  however,  and  evinced  that  ignoble  dis- 


UNHORSED    ON  THE  PRAIRIE.  87 

position  common  to  horses  —  and  not  unknown  among  men  — 
to  drag  down  and  bring  their  fellows  into  the  bonds  of  the 
same  captivity  they  themselves  are  under. 

After  two  hours  spent  in  fruitless  endeavor  to  catch  my  pony, 
and  after  trying  all  manner  of  deceitful  devices  to  entrap  him, 
— such  as  walking  up  toward  him  with  a  handful  of  choice  grass, 
and  offering  it  to  him  in  the  most  respectful  manner  and  sweetest 


UNHORSED    ON    PRAIRIE. 


tone  of  voice,  and  in  holding  a  hat  toward  him  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  suggest  that  it  contained  about  two  quarts  of  shelled 
corn,  —  after  all  this  had  failed,  he  caught  himself  by  entangling 
a  rope,  that  hung  loose  from  his  neck,  in  the  branches  of  a  low 
mesquite. 

I  mounted  the  equine  desperado,  and  said  never  a  word. 
Some  men  would  have  had  revenge  by  punishing  the  animal. 
The  fact  was,  I  could  have  stood  at  that  moment  an  unmoved 


88  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

spectator,  and  let  my  horse  property  be  skinned  alive,  and  I 
could  have  taken  pleasure  in  peppering  and  salting  the  remains, 
after  the  hide  had  been  removed.  Indeed,  in  my  then  state  of 
mind,  no  torture  would  have  seemed  more  than  just ;  but  I  sup- 
pressed my  feelings,  for  the  doctor  was  making  a  ridiculous 
spectacle  of  himself,  laughing  at  what  he  supposed  to  be  "the 
best  circus-performance  he  had  ever  witnessed.  I  made  some 
idiotic  remark  regarding  a  clown,  but  declined  to  speak  further 
until  we  arrived  at  a  place  where  we  decided  to  camp  for  the 
night. 

The  place  we  selected  was  a  narrow  valley,  or  canyon, 
through  which  our  road  ran.  We  staked  our  horses  where 
they  had  an  abundance  of  excellent  grass.  The  doctor  lighted 
a  fire,  I  made  some  bread  and  coffee,  and  we  had  supper. 
After  supper,  pipes.  There  are  few  more  pleasant  moments  in 
a  man's  life  than  those  that  come  after  a  long  and  fatiguing 
day's  ride,  and  a  hearty  supper,  when  he  spreads  out  his  blanket 
under  a  tree,  lights  his  pipe,  and  lies  down  on  his  back  with 
his  head  on  his  saddle,  and  all  care  and  trouble  and  hotel  clerks 
hundreds  of  miles  away.  To  the  man  who  loves  a  brier-root 
pipe,  these  are  moments  of  supreme  enjoyment.  He  gazes 
up  at  the  dark  vault  above,  with  its  myriads  of  glittering 
worlds  circling  around  in  harmonious  evolutions  to  the  music 
of  the  spheres,  and  he  wonders  if  any  of  these  far-away  planets 
are  inhabited  by  —  fleas.  The  sandy  soil  of  the  postoak  coun- 
try abounds  in  fleas.  Two  travellers  are  said  to  have  disputed, 
on  one  occasion,  as  to  whether  it  was  "  a  handful  of  sand  with 
some  fleas  in  it,"  or  "a  handful  of  fleas  with  some  sand  in  it." 

The  camp-fire  burned  low,  and  I  fell  asleep.  I  awoke  sud- 
denly. The  first  thing  I  realized,  I  was  standing  on  my  feet, 
in  my  hand  the  skillet,  which,  in  the  confusion  of  the  moment, 
I  had  caught  up  as  the  most  available  weapon  of  defence.  As 
I  stood  bewildered  in  the  darkness,  the  echo  of  the  blood- 
curdling sound  that  awoke  me  reverberated  through  the  canyon, 
thrown  from  bluff  to  bluff,  and  dying .  away  in  a  diabolical 
cadence  far  up  in  the  northern  end  of  the  valley. 

I  discovered  the  doctor  intrenched  in  a  defensive  attitude 
behind  a  tree,  the  flickering  light  of  the  camp-fire  showing 


A    CHORUS   OF  DEMONS.  89 

a  stern  purpose  in  his  eye,  and  on  his  usually  placid  counte- 
nance a  fixed  determination  to  die  in  his  tracks  rather  than 
submit  to  —  whatever  it  was. 

Before  I  had  time  to  address  him,  the  sound  again  came  up 
out  of  the  thick  darkness,  and  not  only  from  one  direction,  but 
it  seemed  to  proceed  from  a  chorus  of  demons  placed  in  a 
circle  around  our  camp.  It  was  the  most  mournful,  sad,  and 
unearthly  sound  I  had  ever  heard, — a  combination  of  sounds, 
consisting  of  a  howl  of  disappointment,  a  whine  of  sadness, 
and  a  groan  of  pent-up  despair,  with  a  few  bars  from  an  Irish 
caione  thrown  in  to  give  tone  to  the 'effort.  I  had  heard  the 
cry  of  a  distressed  hog  caught  in  a  fence,  I  once  had  a  room- 
mate who  was  learning  to  play  the  flute,  I  had  patiently  sat 
through  an  Italian  opera  inflicted  by  Signer  Blatantizo  and  his 
assistant  fiends,  and  I  have  had  nocturnal  experience  with 
a  baby  suffering  from  colic ;  but  of  all  the  dreadful  and  dreary 
sounds  that  I  had  ever  heard,  emanating  from  objects  animate 
or  inanimate,  this  was  the  most  dreary  and  dreadful.  The  doc- 
tor hoarsely  whispered,  "Indians ! "  Imagine  the  situation  :  "two 
solitary  horsemen  "  in  a  wild  canyon,  far  from  a  human  habita- 
tion ;  the  night  "  dark  as  was  chaos  ere  the  infant  sun  was 
rolled  together,  or  had  tried  his  beams  athwart  the  gloom  pro- 
found ; "  and  a  mysterious  danger  threatening.  Here  we  were, 
hemmed  in  on  every  side,  and  surrounded  by  an  unknown  and 
unseen  foe.  There  was  no  chance  of  escape :  we  had  no  cave 
to  hide  in,  not  even  a  clean  shirt  to  die  in. 

The  situation  was  apalling  to  the  doctor.  To  me,  after  the 
conclusion  of  the  second  overture,  it  was  only  suggestive 
of  fun  at  the  doctor's  expense ;  for  I  had  recognized  the  howl  of 
the  coyote,  and  knew  that  the  fearful  sound  we  had  heard  was 
only  the  impatient  chorus  of  a  gang  of  prairie  wolves,  waiting 
our  departure,  that  they  might  forage  around  the  debris  of  our 
supper. 

The  doctor  thought  we  were  surrounded  by  Comanches  ;  and 
for  two  hours  I  allowed  him  the  luxury  of  thinking  that  he  was 
an  absorbing  object  of  interest  to  about  fifty  howling  savages. 
Two  hours  of  enjoyment  to  me,  and  of  mortal  terror  to  the 
doctor,  I  owed  him  for  his  laugh  at  me  in  the  morning.  He 


9o 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG, 


received  payment  at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  cents  on  the  dol- 
lar. He  performed  some  of  the  most  extraordinary  manoeuvres 
with  a  view  to  deceive  the  enemy,  and  protect  himself  from 
their  bullets.  The  fact  that  it  was  so  dark  you  could  not  see 
six  feet  ahead  —  could  not  even  see  an  opportunity — made 
the  doctor's  movements  all  the  more  absurd.  First,  he  would 
stand  edgewise  against  what  he  supposed  to  be  the  safe  side  of 
a  tree.  The  next  howl,  coming  from  a  new  direction,  would 
cause  him  to  bear  around  to  what  had  previously  been  the 
danger  side.  Then  he  would  imagine  that  the  tree  was  not 

large  enough  to  af- 
ford his  body  suf- 
ficient protection. 
He  kept  dodging 
around  from  tree 
to  tree,  sometimes 
leaving  his  coat 
hanging  on  a  stick 
beside  one  tree,  to 
attract  the  aim  of 
the  savage,  while 
he  skirmished  un- 
der shelter  of  an- 
other of  larger  di- 
ameter. I  could 
hear  the  cold  per- 
spiration drop  from 
his  brow  in  icicles 
at  his  feet.  I  stood  this  as  long  as  I  could.  I  suppressed  my 
laughter  until  I  had  accumulated  so  much  inside  me  that  I  was 
a  perfect  reservoir  of  mirth,  and  was  in  danger  of  becoming 
cracked  in  several  places,  if  I  had  not  turned  loose  some  of  it. 
It  is  not  all  out  of  me  yet. 

I  approached  the  doctor  by  forced  marches,  and,  with  great 
caution,  divulged  to  him  the  truth  as  to  the  situation.  I  broke 
it  to  him  gently  at  first,  fearing  he  might  not  appreciate  the 
joke.  I  really  considered  it  a  joke  on  the  doctor.  He  said  not 
a  word  ;  but  he  looked  a  whole  Webster's  unabridged,  includ- 


CHORUS    OF    DEMONS. 


ROOM  TO   THINK.  91 

ing  pictures.  He  retired  under  his  buffalo  robe  for  the  rest  of 
the  night.  A  few  days  after,  when  he  became  calm  enough 
to  refer  to  the  subject,  he  intimated  that  he  considered  it  the 
most  ghastly  joke  that  was  ever  perpetrated  outside  of  a  morgue. 
The  coyote  is  the  smallest  and  meanest  of  the  wolf  family. 
He  will  attack  nothing  more  fierce  than  a  rabbit  or  a  sheep. 
His  nocturnal  howl  is  the  most  dangerous  thing  connected 
with  him  :  when  heard  for  the  first  time,  it  makes  the  boldest 
tremble,  and  has  been  known  to  make  the  character  of  a  con- 
gressional candidate  turn  white  in  a  single  night. 

Leaving  the  camp  at  dawn,  we  proceeded  directly  west.  Be- 
fore breakfast  we  rode  ten  miles  through  woods ;  past  farms 
where  the  corn  was  as  high  as  a  man,  and  the  cotton-fields  one 
mass  of  white  and  purple  blossoms ;  over  prairies  where  innum- 
erable flowers  grew,  and  cattle  grazed.  The  day  was  hot,  and 
there  was  not  a  cloud  in  the  sky.  In  any  other  place  but  a 
Texas  prairie  the  heat  would  have  been  oppressive  ;  but  there  is 
always  a  pleasant  breeze  from  the  Gulf  sweeping  across  these 
great  tablelands,  just  enough  to  give  the  grass  and  flowers  an 
undulating  motion,  like  the  gentle  ripple  on  an  inland  lake. 

We  camped  on  the  banks  of  a  small  creek,  cooked  and  ate 
breakfast,  and,  after  resting  for  an  hour,  proceeded  on  our  way. 

To  a  man  who  wants  to  think  —  to  get  away  from  the  dis- 
tracting influences  incident  to  life  in  a  city  —  I  would  suggest  a 
trip  on  the  prairie,  not  in  a  buggy  or  wheeled  vehicle,  but  on 
the  back  of  a  quiet  pony,  on  whose  neck  the  rider  can  drop  the 
rein.  Then,  giving  rein  to  his  own  thought,  he  can  do  more 
solid,  comprehensive  thinking  in  an  hour  than  he  could  do  under 
any  other  circumstances  in  a  day.  The  doctor  was  offended 
on  account  of  my  treatment  of  him  the  night  before.  His 
words  were  few,  but  evidently  his  thoughts  were  voluminous. 

What  young  man  is  there  who  has  not,  at  some  time,  wished 
for  a  place  where,  unheard,  he  might  rehearse  his  next  Friday 
night's  lyceum  speech  ?  Who  is  there,  under  such  circum- 
stances, that  has  not  tried  the  garret  and  the  barn,  where  he 
had  to  lower  his  voice,  and  where  he  was  sure  of  being  caught 
in  one  of  his  most  glowing  flights  of  fancy,  and  humiliated  by 
the  sound  of  a  derisive  snicker  at  the  keyhole  ?  To  this  day  it 


92  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

makes  me  blush  to  think  of  how  I  was  once  discovered  in  the 
upper  story  of  an  old  warehouse,  standing  on  a  keg  of  nails, 
and  in  thunder  tones  putting  tremendous  and  unanswerable 
questions  to  an  imaginary  witness  supposed  to  be  seated  on  a 
box  of  miscellaneous  hardware.  [It  seems  unnecessary  to  state, 
that,  like  the  majority  of  the  young  men  of  this  country,  I  once 
tampered  with  the  study  of  law.]  The  great  want  of  the  age  is 
a  place  where  our  rudimental  statesmen  can  practise  oratory 
without  being  subjected  to  the  interruption  of  obtrusive  eaves- 
droppers. This  long-felt  want  is  supplied  in  unlimited  quanti- 
ties by  the  great  prairies  of  the  West.  Here  the  budding 
politician,  seeking  perfection  in  oratory  by  practice,  can  select 
a  green  sod,  and,  standing  on  it,  he  can  see  for  miles  on  either 
side,  and  have  ocular  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  his  voice 
will  not  reach  the  ears  of  any  other  of  his  species.  Then  and 
there  he  may  harangue  and  howl  until  the  turkey  buzzard, 
away  up  in  the  blue  vault  above,  trembles  with  fear,  and  the 
coyote,  in  his  hole  below,  shrieks  with  envy,  and  not  a  man  will 
hear ;  and,  when  he  concludes  his  peroration,  there  will  be  no 
kind  friend  around  to  secure  him,  and  lead  him  off  to  a  lunatic- 
asylum.  Looking  at  the  matter  in  this  light,  I  certainly  think 
that  every  village  large  enough  to  support  a  debating-society 
should,  for  the  purpose  just  specified,  be  furnished  with  a  prai- 
rie. On  second  thought,  probably  it  would  be  better  to  furnish 
every  prairie,  especially  those  inhabited  by  hostile  Indians,  with 
one  of  our  surplus  debating-societies. 

At  noon  we  rested  under  the  shade  in  a  live-oak  grove,  a  spot 
with  more  quiet  natural  beauty  than  any  we  had  yet  seen.  The 
place  was  somewhat  higher  than  the  surrounding  prairie,  and, 
unlike  the  low-lying  timber-lands  of  other  sections,  there  was 
no  undergrowth.  The  soil,  of  a  light  sandy  nature,  was  cov- 
ered with  a  gorgeous  carpet  of  rich  grass  and  rainbow-hued 
flowers,  long  vistas  between  the  trees,  ending  in  a  broad  sweep 
of  undulating  prairie,  stretching  and  widening  out  to  the  hills 
on  the  far-away  horizon.  On  this  prairie  numberless  cattle 
and  horses  were  grazing ;  far  out  to  the  left  the  river,  —  a  sil- 
ver fringe  on  the  mantle  of  the  everlasting  hills,  —  and  on  its 
banks  the  farm  of  a  squatter,  with  fields  of  corn  and  cotton, 


DINNER  IN  CAMP. 


93 


ragged  fence,  and  tumble-down  house ;  in  the  near  distance  a 
huge  canvas-covered  wagon  —  prairie  schooners  they  are  called 
—  slowly  crawling  along  the  plain,  looking  like  a  becalmed  lug- 
ger on  a  quiet  sea ;  the  trees  overhead,  luxuriant  in  their  dark- 
green  foliage,  their  branches  scarcely  moving  in  the  gentle 


DINNER    IN    CAMP. 


breeze ;  the  somnolent  influences  of  the  hour  upon  birds  and 
insects ;  nothing  engaged  in  active  labors  but  the  ever-busy  red 
ant  and  the  indefatigable  tumble-bug,  — 

"  Soft  shadows  rippling  on  the  tender  grass, 
Soft  sunlight  glinting  on  the  fresh  green  leaves, 
Soft  winds  that  crisp  the  waters  as  they  pass, 
Soft  chirps  of  birds  beneath  the  cottage  eaves ; " 


94 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


all  the  rest  of  nature  asleep,  and  "the  very  elements  as 
silent  as  the  trickling  rill  of  molasses  on  the  roof  of  a  pan- 
cake," as  the  doctor  remarked  in  his  classic  way.  In  this  love- 
ly spot  we  cooked  dinner ;  or  rather  the  doctor  cooked  it,  while 
I  laid  the  table.  Laying  the  table  in  a  camp  like  ours  was  a 
very  mild  kind  of  labor,  — merely  the  throwing  of  two  tin  cups 
on  the  grass,  and  the  dropping  of  a  sack  of  salt  between  the 
plates. 

While  the  coffee  was  boiling  and  the  bacon  frying,  we  dis- 
played some  masterly  inactivity  in  lying  on  the  grass,  thinking 
of  far-away  scenes,  and  scooping  ants  out  of  our  ears.  While 
thus  lost  in  revery,  most  of  our  dinner  got  lost  in  the  stomach 
of  two  vile  razor-back  hogs  that  took  advantage  of  our  abstrac- 
tion, and  abstracted  all  our  bacon  and  part  of  our  corn-bread. 


IN  SEARCH  OF  SHELTER.  95 


CHAPTER     VIII. 


previous  night's  experi- 
!>%-  ence,  the   doctor  thought   it 
would  be  better   to   stop   at 
some  house,  if  we  could  find 
one  about  sundown.     As  we 

rode  along  in  the  evening,  we  met  a  man  who  told  us  that  we 
could  probably  be  accommodated  for  the  night  at  the  house  of 
a  cotton-planter  named  Magruder,  who  lived  about  a  mile  off 
the  road. 

"  I  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  the  hospitality  of  the  South- 
ern planter,"  said  the  doctor,  "and  I  have  no  doubt  that  Mr. 
Magruder  will  probably  refuse  to  let  us  leave  the  shadow  of  his 
hospitable  roof  for  the  next  ten  days." 

I  looked  at  the  doctor  to  see  if  he  were  in  earnest,  and  per- 
ceived that  he  was,  to  an  utterly  incredible  extent.  He  had 
read  a  great  deal  about  cotton-planters  and  their  baronial  sur- 
roundings before  the  war,  and  he  had  not  yet  realized  the 
immensity  of  the  change  that  had  taken  place. 

"  What  kind  of  a  place  do  you  suppose  Magruder's  is  ? "  I 
queried. 

Said  the  doctor  impressively,  "Of  course,  I  cannot  exactly 
say ;  but  I  suppose  the  old  family  mansion  is  pleasantly  situated 
in  the  middle  of  a  park  of  venerable  live-oaks,  with  moss  pend- 
ent from  their  sturdy  limbs.  The  fat  and  happy  black  peas- 


96  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

antry  will  be  at  work  in  the  fields,  singing  their  touching  old 
plantation  songs.  I  take  Mr.  Magruder  to  be  a  tall,  handsome 
man,  with  black  hair  and  eyes,  uniting  the  haughty  reserve  of 
the  Spanish  hidalgo  with  the  geniality  of  a  "  — 

"  Of  a  what  ?  "  I  interrupted.  "  Of  a  man  who  wants  to  bor- 
row five  dollars  from  you  ? " 

As  I  had  not  suggested  the  word  the  doctor  needed,  he  kept 
on  hunting  for  it. 

"Of  a  — of  a"  — 

"  Geniality  of  an  auctioneer? "  I  suggested  ;  "of  a  lightening- 
rod  man  ?  of  a  deputy-sheriff  hunting  for  jurors  ? " 

"No,  that  is  not  it ;  but  never  mind,"  said  the  doctor:  "we 
will  find  out  when  we  get  there.  No  doubt,  we  will  discover 
Mr.  Magruder  surrounded  by  a  few  select  friends  and  neighbors, 
dispensing  the  hospitality  for  which  the  planter  of  the  South  is 
proverbial.  But  I  do  not  see  any  signs  of  the  plantation." 

"Perhaps  we  had  better  ask  at  this  shanty,"  I  remarked, 
pointing  to  a  dilapidated  building  that  needed  repairs  and  white- 
wash before  it  would  be  good  enough  for  a  cow  to  live  in,  but 
which  was  evidently  inhabited  by  man.  Most  of  the  fence  was 
down,  and  the  gate  was  gone  :  so  we  rode  up  to  within  shout- 
ing distance  of  the  house,  with  the  hope  of  acquiring  informa- 
tion that  would  lead  us  to  the  castellated  mansion  cf  the 
chivalric  cotton-planter,  Col.  Magruder. 

"  Hello,  there  !  "  shouted  the  doctor. 

In  Texas  this  is  the  way  visitors  have  of  announcing  their 
presence.  It  is  much  more  convenient  than  dismounting  and 
ringing  the  door-bell,  especially  when  there  happens  to  be  nei- 
ther door  nor  bell ;  and  then  it  sounds  romantic  and  mediaeval. 
There  was  no  answer  to  the  first  summons  :  so  the  doctor  again 
whooped  a  defiance  at  the  house,  like  a  herald  in  ancient  times 
challenging  the  inmates  of  some  castle  to  surrender.  It  would 
not  have  surprised  me  to  have  heard  a  voice  from  the  old  ruin 
shout,  "  What !  Ho  !  without  there !  Minions,  seize  the  caitiff 
at  the  postern  gate,  and  hurl  him  from  the  loftiest  battlements 
into  the  seething  moat  that  flows  past  the  dungeon-keep ! " 
But,  instead  of  that,  we  heard  a  piping  voice  from  the  ramparts 
of  the  old  cowpen  say,  — 


THE  PLANTER'S  RESIDENCE.  97 

"  Hello,  yourself !  " 

The  voice  proceeded  from  what  we  at  first  supposed  to  be  a 
bundle  of  rags.  We  soon  found  that  a  native  addressed  us. 

"  Can  you  tell  me  how  far  it  is  to  Col.  Magruder's  planta- 
tion ? "  asked  the  doctor. 

"You  are  thar,  stranger:  I'm  Col.  Magruder." 

I  bent  over  my  saddle  to  conceal  some  of  my  emotion.  The 
doctor  seemed  dazed  :  he  was  bewildered,  and  it  was  some  time 
before  he  recovered  sufficiently  to  say,  "  Can  we  stay  here  for 
the  night,  Colonel  ? " 

"  Well,  yes,  I  reckon  as  you  kin,  if  you  kin  put  up  with  the 
accommodations.  The  old  woman  is  down  with  the  chills,  but 
we  will  do  what  we  kin  for  you." 

We  dismounted,  and  the  colonel  pointed  out  what  he  called 
the  stable.  It  was  a  miserable  open  shed,  inhabited  by  a  family 
of  pigs.  We  did  not  wish  to  accustom  our  ponies  to  luxuries 
that  they  might  miss  afterwards,  so  we  did  not  put  them  in  the 
shed  :  we  tied  them  to  a  tree.  We  have  no  doubt  that  Magru 
der  believed  it  to  be  a  really  comfortable  stable.  When  Don 
Quixote  started  out  on  his  travels,  and  stopped  at  a  very  com- 
mon kind  of  inn,  he  labored  under  the  hallucination  that  the 
inn  was  a  stately  castle,  that  the  innkeeper  was  a  nobleman  of 
exalted  rank,  and  that  all  the  pewter  spoons  were  silver,  and  the 
brass  candlesticks  were  pure  gold.  In  the  present  instance  it 
was  the  innkeeper  (Magruder),  and  not  the  traveller,  who  was 
laboring  under  hallucinations. 

Having  attended  to  the  wants  of  our  horses,  we  walked  over 
to  the  house,  and  took  seats  on  the  gallery.  It  was  a  low  one- 
story  house,  or,  rather,  two  houses  joined  together  by  one  con- 
tinuous roof.  In  this  kind  of  building,  called  a  double  log- 
house,  the  space  between  the  two  sections  forms  an  open  hall, 
used  as  a  dining-room,  and  a  convenient  place  where  saddles, 
wagon-covers,  sacks  of  cornmeal,  and  other  collaterals,  can  be 
hung  upon  the  floor.  In  this  cool  and  shady  apartment,  called 
the  gallery,  so  necessary  in  warm  climates,  the  inhabitants  — 
men,  women,  children,  chickens,  and  dogs  —  sleep  during  the 
sultry  hours  after  dinner.  In  this  breezy  hall-way  hangs  sus- 
pended from  the  roof  a  bucket  of  water,  and  resting  on  the  sur- 

7 


98  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG, 

face  of  the  water  is  a  drinking-cup  fashioned  out  of  a  gourd  or 
a  cocoanut-shell.  The  chinks  betwen  the  logs  that  form  the 
walls  of  the  house  are  filled  with  pebbles  and  mortar,  or  mud. 
The  roof  is  of  cypress  shingles.  The  mud-built  cells  of  the 
dirt-dauber  fresco  the  rafters,  and  the  yellow-jacket  buzzes  out 
and  in  through  the  holes  in  the  cedar  logs  of  the  wall. 

Col.  Magruder  might  have  been  called — without  injury  to 
the  sacred  cause  of  truth  —  a  very  spare  man.  He  was  like  the 
geometrical  definition  of  a  straight  line,  and  he  looked  as  if  he 
might  be  used  advantageously  in  sounding  artesian  wells.  The 
only  things  the  colonel  seemed  to  be  well  provided  with  were 
hair  and  bile. 

"  Travelled  fur,  gentlemen  ?  "  inquired  the  colonel,  when  we 
had  seated  ourselves  on  hide-bottomed  chairs  on  the  gallery. 
We  called  him  "  colonel,"  although  we  did  not  know  that  such 
was  his  title;  but  the  generic  appellation  of  "colonel"  or 
"judge"  being  generally  used  in  Texas  between  strangers,  we 
instinctively  selected  colonel.  We  thought  it  appropriate  to 
the  old  relic,  as  he  had  a  halt  in  his  gait  suggestive  of  the 
perils  of  war  and  of  a  wooden  leg. 

•"We  came  from  below  Richmond  to-day.     You  seem  to  have 
a  very  fine  country  here,  Colonel." 

"  Yes,  sir :  the  best  and  healthfullest  country  in  the  world, 
sir.  A  man  that  couldn't  live  here  couldn't  live  in  the  Carding 
of  Eden,  with  a  drug-store  next  door.  You'ns  are  strangers 
from  the  States,  I  reckon  ? " 

"Yes  :  we  have  only  been  in  Texas  during  the  last  few  days." 

"Travellin1  fur  yur  health,  or  jest  prospectin'  around  ?  " 

The  doctor  made  four  or  five  wild  gestures  at  once  to  drive 
away  the  flies,  and  answered  cheerfully,  considering  the  sur- 
roundings, that  we  were  travelling  principally  for  pleasure,  and 
enjoying  ourselves  very  much. 

"  Well,  as  fur  pleasure,"  said  the  colonel,  "  you'll  not  p'r'aps 
hev  as  fine  vittles  nor  as  fancy  cookin'  as  you  could  git  vvhar 
you  kem  from  ;  but  what  you  git  in  Texas  will  be  wholesome, 
and  better  fur  the  stomach,  than  the  high-toned  slops  you  git  in 
the  cities :  and  as  fur  health,  why,  it's  the  healthfullest  country 
in  the  world ;  and,  if  you'ns  stay  here  fur  a  couple  of  months, 


CORN-BREAD  AND  FRY. 


99 


you  will  absorb  and  carry  away  enough  of  it  in  your  system  to 
last  a  lifetime.     You  may  think  it's  mirak'lous,  but  it's  so." 

Some  one  inside  called  the  colonel.  He  shuffled  into  the 
house,  but  immediately  re-appeared  with  an  enormous  hand- 
bell big  enough  to  call  together  a  congregation  in  a  sparsely 
settled  county.  After  he  had  walked  up  and  down,  swinging 
the  bell  until  the  air  for  miles  around  was  filled  with  discord, 
and  the  people  on  the  coast 
must  have  thought  that 
there  was  a  Chicago  fire  in 
some  of  the  inland  towns, 
he  gave  the  musical  ding- 
dong  a  final  jingle,  and  for- 
mally invited  us  to  "step 
into  the  dining-room  for  sup- 
per." The  doctor  and  I  both 
wondered  that  he  had  not 
asked  us  to  "  rendezvous  in 
the  salle  a  manger,  and  par- 
take of  a  slight  refectory." 

The  meal  was  spread  on 
a  plain  pine  table  without 
cover.  We  did  not  at  first 
know  that  it  was  a  pine  ta- 
ble, owing  to  the  fact  that  it  did  not  seem  to  have  been  washed 
since  the  Texas  revolution.  Supper  consisted  of  coffee  without 
milk, flies  without  butter,  corn-bread,  and  "fry."  " Fry  "  means 
rancid  bacon  charred  by  the  action  of  fire.  We  sat  down  at  the 
table,  — the  colonel,  the  doctor,  and  I ;  but,  before  we  began  our 
repast,  the  old  gentleman  got  up,  went  out  again,  and  dislocated 
the  echoes  with  that  infernal  old  bell.  This  brought  his  two 
sons  to  the  supper-table.  They  were  about  twenty  odd  years 
of  age,  and  did  not  look  as  if  they  had  absorbed  more  than 
their  rightful  share  of  the  "  healthfullest  climate  in  the  world." 

"  Do  you  take  sweetning  in  your  coffee  ?  Help  yourselves 
to  some  corn-bread.  Have  some  fry,"  said  our  host,  with  the 
air  of  a  man  offering  a  choice  from  a  bill  of  fare  covering  all 
the  delicacies  of  the  season. 


COL.    MAGRUDER. 


100  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

I  noticed  a  bottle  containing  some  white  powder  on  the 
table.  One  after  the  other  the  three  men  helped  themselves 
to  a  small  quantity  of  the  powder  on  the  end  of  a  knife.  I 
found  that  the  bottle  contained  quinine  ;  and  the  drug,  as  I 
afterwards  learned,  was  actually  as  staple  as  salt  on  the  dinner- 
tables  of  the  people  in  that  section,  being  used  by  each  mem- 
ber of  the  family  as  a  preface  to  every  meal. 

"  Have  you  lived  here  a  long  time,  Colonel  ? "  said  the 
doctor. 

"  I  kem  here,  sir,  from  Mississippi  in  '46.  I  hev  never  been 
back  in  the  old  State  but  once  since,  and  I  couldn't  live  thar. 
I  was  disunwell  all  the  time  I  staid  thar.  It  is  a  very  unhealthy 
country,  Major,  'specially  the  eastern  part,  whar  I  kem  from." 

I  was  too  much  engaged  sawing  at  the  "fry"  with  an  ancient 
knife  that  turned  around  in  the  handle,  and  astonishing  my 
inner  structure  with  chunks  of  it,  to  engage  much  in  table- 
talk  ;  but  the  doctor  kept  up  our  end  of  the  conversation. 

"Any  game  around  here,  Colonel  ?  "said  he. 

"Game  is  mighty  scarce  here  now,  sure.  When  I  kem  here 
in  '46  thar  was  dead-oodles  of  game  all  around  here,  —  bar,  and 
deer,  and  wild  turkey,  and  all  kinds  of  varmints." 

"  The  country  is  too  thickly  settled  for  game  to  stay  here 
now,  I  suppose,"  suggested  the  doctor. 

"  Thar's  right  smart  of  people  here,  compared  to  what  thar 
was  when  I  kem  here  in  '46.  The  game  is  nigh  all  gone, 
exceptin'  along  in  the  bottoms,  whar  you  will  occasionally  find 
a  bar  or  a  wildcat." 

"  You  appear  to  be  an  old  man,  Colonel  ;  but  apparently  you 
are  good  for  some  years'  hunting  yet." 

"  You  may  say  that,  Major,"  said  the  longitudinal  old  skele- 
ton ;  "  and  I  may  thank  this  healthful  climate  that  I  can  still 
heft  as  much  as  some  of  the  young  folks.  When  I  kem  here  in 
'46,  I  was  thirty-nine  years  old.  You  may  think  it's  mirak'lous, 
but  it's  so.  I'm  seventy-three  now,  and  I'm  going  to  live  right 
here  the  balance  of  my  days." 

"  How  are  your  crops,  Colonel  ? " 

"Sufferin',  sir,  sufferin'  for  rain.  I  have  been  here  since  '46; 
and  exceptin'  once,  —  the  dry  year,  that  was  '57,  —  I  never  saw 


FISH-STORIES  BY  THE  DOCTOR.  IOI 

such  a  dry  time  as  we  are  havin'  now.  It  didn't  used  to  be  this 
away  ;  for  when  I  kem  "  — 

The  colonel  stopped  suddenly,  and  began  to  shake.  His  face 
turned  blue,  and  he  shook  until  the  dishes  rattled  on  the  table. 

"  Are  you  sick,  Colonel  ?  "  asked  the  doctor  somewhat  anx- 
iously. 

"  Me  sick ! "  said  the  colonel,  and  he  smiled :  at  least,  that 
is  what  he  meant  it  should  be  taken  for ;  but,  between  chatter- 
ing teeth  and  the  attempt  at  scorn,  it  was  a  most  unhealthy 
kind  of  a  smile.  "Why,  I  kem  here  in  '46;  and  I  don't  remem- 
ber, in  all  that  time,  feeling  as  well  as  I  do  jest  now.  I'm  only 
threatened  with  a  chill." 

The  conversation  turned  on  fishing.  The  doctor  is  an  enthu- 
siast on  the  subject  of  fishing.  He  can  catch  more  fish  in  a 
given  time  than  any  man  I  ever  knew ;  that  is,  he  can  really 
capture  a  greater  number  of  fish,  and  hook  a  more  choice 
assortment  of  monster  trout  and  catfish,  than  any  ordinary  liar 
I  have  met.  The  gigantic  bass,  the  enormous  trout,  the  tre- 
mendous catfish,  that  he  has  hooked,  and  that  eventually  got 
away  from  him  by  the  breaking  of  hooks,  catching  of  lines  on 
snags,  and  by  other  distressing  accidents  common  to  men  who 
fish  on  Sunday,  would,  if  all  recaptured  and  gathered  together, 
fill  six  refrigerator-cars,  besides  all  the  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren in  South-western  Texas.  The  doctor  has  a  wonderful  gift 
for  estimating  exactly,  to  an  ounce,  the  weight  of  the  fish  that 
he  hooks.  What  makes  this  gift  more  remarkable  is  the  fact, 
that  he  can  tell  you,  to  an  ounce,  the  weight  of  every  one  of  the 
large  fish  he  has  lost.  While  he  may  sometimes  err  regarding 
the  avoirdupois  of  the  small  fry  that  he  brings  home  on  the 
string,  I  have  never  known  him  to  make  a  single  mistake  in 
estimating  the  weight  of  the  large  ones  that  get  away. 

The  doctor  recalled  a  very  fishy  reminiscence  of  a  day's  sport 
on  the  Savannah  River,  and  told  how  a  six-pound  bass  engaged 
his  attention  for  two  hours,  and  how,  having  carelessly  allowed 
the  line  to  become  slack,  the  bass,  who  had  evidently  been 
watching  for  an  opportunity,  gave  the  line  two  or  three  hitches 
around  a  cypress  stump,  and  then  coolly,  at  his  leisure,  gnawed 
the  line  until  it  broke  above  its  point  of  contact  with  the  stump ; 


102  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

the  fish  unhitching  himself,  and  swimming  off,  wagging  his 
tail  as  if  he  were  accustomed  to  indulge  in  such  strategy  every 
day.  This  suggested  some  piscatorial  lying  on  the  part  of  the 
colonel,  who  gave  us  an  experience  he  had  with  a  catfish  a 
short  time  after  his  arrival  in  Texas  in  1846. 

"I  had  been  down  to  the  crick,"  said  he,  "and  found  it  was 
in  good  condition,  — just  been  a  freshet ;  enough  to  discolor  the 
water.  I  went  home,  and  got  my  tackle  and  some  worms ;  and, 
before  I  had  been  at  work  twenty  minutes,  I  had  got  a  fine 
string  of  young  cat  and  perch.  I  knew  that  thar  war  some 
whoppin'  big  catfish  in  that  hole  :  so  I  bated  with  a  piece  of 
chicken-liver,  and  caught  a  mudcat  weighing  about  ten  pounds. 
Now,  what  I'm  goin'  to  tell,  you  may  think  mirak'lous,  but  it  is 
as  true  as  the  fourth  chapter  of  Judaea.  I  put  that  ten-pounder 
on  the  string  with  the  rest,  and  went  down  the  crick  a  bit. 
When  I  returned,  thar  was  a  big  moccason  coiled  around  the 
string  of  fish.  The  string  had  broke,  and  the  old  catfish  was  a 
floppin'  and  a  strugglin'  like  mad.  He  got  loose,  and  what  do 
you  think  he  did  ?  Well,  gentlemen,  you  may  think  it  mirak'- 
lous, and  I  can't  hardly  expect  you  to  believe  it,  but  it  is  a  gos- 
pel fact,  and  it  occurred  down  to  that  thar  crick  in  the  fall  of 
'46.  That  old  cat,  sir,  jest  wriggled  up  to  the  moccason  as  he 
lay  coiled  around  the  bunch  of  fish.  He  took  two  coils  of  the 
snake  in  his  mouth,  and  shuck  her  like  a  dog  shakes  a  rat.  Fur 
about  half  a  minute  it  rained  small  catfish  and  goggle-eyed 
perch  all  around  whar  I  stood.  The  snake's  back  was  broke  in 
two  places,  and  he  was  chawed  up  considerable.  Gentlemen, 
you  hear  me,  it  was  a  boss  sight  to  see  how  mad  that  old  mud- 
cat  was.  His  fins  and  stickers  stood  straight  out,  and  there 
was  a  bow  in  his  back  like  a  figure  5.  I  was  so  pleased  that 
I  histed  him  back  into  the  crick ;  and  he  is  thar  now,  for  all  I 
know.  Now,  you  may  think  it's  mirak'lous,  but  it's  the  truth  I'm 
tellin'  you,  gentlemen.  Won't  you  walk  out  on  the  gallery  ? " 

We  walked  out.  The  doctor  was  oppressively  silent :  he 
seemed  to  need  fresh  air.  The  old  man's  son  Sam  suggested 
to  his  brother  Bud  that  it  would  be  well  for  Bud  to  "  'tend  to 
the  mending  of  that  fence  to-morrow." 

"Can't  do  it,"  said  Bud:  "to-morrow  is  my  chill  day,  and  you 


"  CHILLS  IS  NOTHING  " 


103 


might  know  it,  I  think,  by  this  time ;  but  you  are  so  wrapped 
up  in  yourself,  you  never  keep  the  hang  of  anybody's  chills  but 
your  own." 

"  Don't  get  mad  about  it,"  replied  Sam.  "  I'd  fix  the  blamed 
thing  to-morrow  myself ;  but  I  hev  to  go  to  town,  and  next  day  is 
my  chill  day :  but  I  reckon  it  will  keep  until  Friday  ;  then  I  can 
attend  to  it  myself." 

"  Do  you  ever  have 
chills  yourself,  Colo- 
nel ?"  asked  the  doc- 
tor. 

"Oh!  chills  is  noth- 
in',  a  little  aggravatin' 
sometimes,  you  know; 
but,  in  a  healthful 
country  like  this,  we 
can  afford  to  hev  a 
chill  or  two  now  and 
then.  Mine  is  the 
seven-day  ague  :  so  I 
hev  lots  of  time  to 
rest  between  chills. 
We  hain't  got  no 
small-pox  or  lumbago 
or  leprosy,  or  any  of 
them  things ;  and,  if 
we  hev  a  chill  or  a 
touch  of  rheumatiz 
once  in  a  while,  we 
don't  write  to  the  pa- 
pers about  it.  We 
can't  reckon  on  all 

the  blessin's  and  conveniences  of  paradise  this  side  a  better 
world.  It  ain't  nat'ral  to  expect  it.  We  don't  appreciate 
health  as  we  orter.  Talk  of  chills!  Why,  back  whar  I  kem 
from,  in  Mississippi,  they  fire  off  a  gun  every  day  at  twelve 
o'clock  for  folks  to  take  their  quinine  by.  When  they  want  to 
get  the  persimmons  off'n  a  tree,  they  tie  a  feller  to  the  trunk, 


HARVESTING    PERSIMMONS. 


104  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

and  they  sit  around  and  wait  for  his  chill  to  come  on,  and  the 
persimmons  to  drap,  which  they  do  simultaneous.  He  fetches 
the  persimmons  every  time,  but  it  don't  do  to  leave  him  tied 
thar  too  long.  The  tree  would  get  so  shuck  up,  it  wouldn't 
bar  next  year.  No,  sir  :  we  ain't  half  thankful  for  the  health 
we  enjoy.  Why,  sir,  when  I  kem  here  in  '46,  I  was  a  skeleton. 
You  may  think  it  mirak'lous,  but  it's  so.  I  was  used  to  being 
sick  six  days  in  the  week,  and  I  usually  lay  abed  all  day  Sun- 
day. I  was  consumptive  and  bilious  till  I  couldn't  rest,  and 
now  you  see  what  I  am." 

We  saw  what  he  was,  —  a  prematurely  decrepit  old  man, 
broken  down  with  malarial  chills,  rheumatism,  corn-bread,  and 
fry ;  an  attenuated  fool,  satisfied  with  his  condition  because  he 
did  not  know  a  better  one. 

Until  it  was  time  to  retire  for  the  night,  the  colonel  enter- 
tained us  with  stories  of  the  early  days  when  he  came  to  Texas. 
Most  of  his  anecdotes  had  reference  to  the  healthiness  of  the 
Brazos  bottom. 

An  entomologist  once  told  me,  that  in  his  garden  there  was  a 
bow-legged,  wall-eyed,  and  consumptive  potato-bug  that  had 
lived  all  his  life  on  one  little  dried-up  potato-vine.  It  never 
had  explored  any  of  the  neighboring  vines.  It  opposed  free 
schools,  and  refused  to  subscribe  to  the  daily  papers.  Eventu- 
ally it  died.  To  the  last  it  was  strong  in  the  belief  that  its 
potato-vine  was  the  most  verdant  and  luxuriant  piece  of  foliage 
in  the  unfverse,  and  that  it  was  the  most  athletic  and  robust 
Adonis  of  a  potato-bug  in  existence.  What  absurd  and  foolish 
things  potato-bugs  are  anyhow ! 

It  was  late,  and  the  colonel  suggested  that  it  was  "  time  to 
lie  down  a  spell."  We  slept  on  the  gallery,  sandwiched  be- 
tween a  horse-blanket, and  a  patch-work  quilt  that  looked  as  if 
it  had  come  to  Texas  in  '46,  and  had  been  under  malarial  influ- 
ences ever  since.  A  very  small  man  must  have  been  measured 
for  that  quilt.  When  we  got  it  up  over  our  shoulders,  our 
ankles  were  bare :  when  our  feet  were  covered,  the  north  end 
of  the  quilt  could  barely  be  discovered  in  the  distance.  It  was 
under  these  circumstances  that  we  realized  that  man's  ex- 
tremity is  the  mosquito's  opportunity,  and  also  that  a  Texas 


"THE    VITTLES  SOT  OUT."  105 

bed-bug  can  take  up  more  room  in  a  bed  than  any  thing  else, 
except  a  broken  spring  in  the  mattress,  or  a  small  boy  with  cold 
feet. 

We  got  up  at  sunrise.  We  had  made  a  solemn  vow  during 
the  night  to  deprive  the  colonel  of  our  company  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible. The  doctor  intimated  that  the  climate  was  so  healthy 
that  we  thought  we  had  absorbed  enough  health  to  last  us  for 
life,  if  we  would  be  careful  not  to  waste  any  of  it.  We  visited 
our  horses,  while  Bud  and  the  old  pioneer  of  '46  prepared 
breakfast ;  and  we  were  gratified  at  finding  them  where  he  had 
tied  them  the  previous  night.  Upon  returning  to  the  house, 
we  found  Col.  Magruder  walking  up  and  down,  swinging  the 
breakfast-bell. 

"  Walk  in,  gentlemen  :  the  vittles  is  sot  out,"  said  he.  We 
sat  down  to  a  breakfast  that  varied  in  no  detail  from  the  supper 
of  the  night  previous,  except  that  the  "  sweetnin' "  had  given 
out,  and  we  had  to  take  our  coffee  without  sugar. 

The  ordinary  Texas  farmer  lives  on  corn-bread,  bacon,  and 
coffee,  without  variety,  all  the  year  round.  Three  times  a  day 
the  same  bill  of  fare  is  set  before  the  household.  Vegetables 
are  not  cultivated  to  any  extent ;  and,  as  it  is  too  much  trouble 
to  bring  up  the  cows  and  milk  them,  the  owners  forego  the  use 
of  milk,  and  the  calves  benefit  by  the  farmer's  indolence. 
Some,  however,  have  milk  on  the  table ;  a  few  provide  butter : 
but  they  are  exceptions ;  they  are  the  wealthy  and  luxurious 
part  of  the  community ;  they  were  not  born  in  Texas,  but 
brought  with  them  these  extravagant  tastes,  acquired  in  a  life 
of  epicurean  indulgence  in  some  northern  clime,  where  they 
had  to  work  hard  only  three  hundred  and  odd  days  in  the  year 
to  make  a  living.  In  Texas  I  have  hundreds  of  times  heard 
men  say,  "  There  is  no  other  country  in  the  world  where  a  man 
can  make  a  living  with  as  little  exertion."  But  what  a  living, 
and  what  a  life  !  I  have  known  Texans  who  owned  thousands 
of  horned  cattle,  and  yet  did  not  taste  fresh  meat,  milk,  or 
butter  half  a  dozen  times  a  year.  I  have  seen  their  crops 
choked  with  weeds,  while  the  owners  were  playing  the  fiddle, 
and  drinking  bad  whiskey  in  the  grocery.  I  have  seen  their 
cattle  die  of  hunger  during  a  severe  winter,  because  no  effort 


106  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

was  made  during  the  summer  to  harvest  the  abundant  crop 
of  prairie-grass,  that  makes  excellent  hay,  and  is  free  to  all. 
I  knew  one  of  these  men  who  threw  his  corn  into  the  Trinity 
River  because  he  could  not  get  fifty  cents  a  bushel  for  it ;  but 
then,  Texas  is  a  great  State  for  hogs  and  other  brutes  that  go 
to  make  life  a  pleasant  dream. 

Mrs.  Hanks  was  a  very  pious  Texan,  who  lived  in  the  usual 
miserable  way.  She  hired  a  man  from  Vermont  to  work  on 
her  farm.  Mrs.  Hanks  noticed  that  he  did  not  ask  a  blessing 
before  eating.  She  grieved  over  this  for  a  week.  Then  she 
spoke  to  him,  as  he  sat  down  to  supper  in  his  usual  graceless 
way.  She  said,  "  Don't  you  think,  that,  before  you  begin  to 
eat,  you  should  offer  a  word  of  thanks  to  the  Giver  of  all  good, 
for  the  food  before  you  ? " 

He  paused,  and,  closing  his  eyes,  he  bowed  his  head  ;  while 
the  old  lady  stood  with  folded  hands,  inwardly  rejoicing  that 
she  had  brought  him  to  a  sense  of  his  duty.  He  said,  "  O  Lord, 
bacon  and  corn-bread  for  breakfast,  corn-bread  and  bacon  for 
dinner,  and  a  little  of  both  for  supper.  Damn  bacon  and  corn- 
bread.  Amen." 

This  parallels  the  case  of  the  Scotchman,  who  is  said  to  have 
described  a  dinner  he  had  been  invited  to,  as  follows  :  — 

"  First  I  got  praties  and  kale ; 
Then  I  got  kale  after  that  again ; 
Then  I  got  kale  upon  kale ; 
And  then  I  got  cauld  kale  het  again." 

But  to  return  to  the  hospitable  Magruder.  The  doctor 
seemed  to  experience  a  great  deal  of  satisfaction  in  hugging 
the  delusion  that  the  colonel  would  not  require  any  remunera- 
tion for  the  suffering  we  had  undergone. 

"  I  verily  believe,"  said  the  doctor,  as  we  talked  the  matter 
over,  "  that  if  we  were  to  hint  that  we  wanted  to  pay  him,  he 
would  feel  around  for  that  squirrel-gun,  as  he  did  this  morning 
when  I  suggested  that  the  fog  from  the  river  might  be  injuri- 
ous to  weak  lungs." 

My  impression  was,  that  the  gun  would  be  appealed  to  if 
there  were  any  hesitancy  on  our  part  in  settling  up. 

Notwithstanding  the  joy  we  felt  in  knowing  that  we  were 


FILING  A    COUNTER-CLAIM.  107 

eating  our  last  meal  under  the  colonel's  roof,  we  did  not  have 
much  appetite.  We  went  out  to  the  lot,  in  a  subdued  kind  of 
ecstasy,  to  saddle  up  our  horses  preparatory  to  making  our 
escape.  The  colonel  experienced  a  great  deal  of  sorrow  on 
learning  that  we  were  determined  to  go ;  and  we  really  felt  that 
his  was  genuine  sorrow,  when  he  subsequently  informed  us 
that  we  owed  him  four  dollars  for  the  accommodation  we  and 
our  horses  had  suffered  from  so  abundantly.  I,  however,  filed 
a  counter-claim  of  a  dollar  and  a  half,  covering  the  value  of  one 
of  my  spurs  and  the  doctor's  hitching-rein,  which  had  been 
stolen  by  Bud,  who  had  left  immediately  after  breakfast.  The 
colonel  was  so  anxious  to  fondle  our  money,  that  he  admitted 
the  claim,  uttering,  however,  horrible  imprecations  on  his 
offspring,  who  had  often  put  him  to  unnecessary  expense,  and 
whose  carelessness  in  mistaking  harness  he  could  not  suffi- 
ciently deprecate.  He  hoped,  he  said,  that  if  we  ever  came  that 
way  again,  we  would  call  and  make  ourselves  at  home,  actually 
mentioning,  as  an  inducement,  the  utter  absence  of  all  malarial 
diseases.  He  said  he  knew  whereof  he  spoke,  for  had  he  not 
been  there  since  1846? 

After  getting  about  two  hundred  yards  from  the  house,  the 
doctor  turned  and  galloped  back,  called  the  colonel  out,  and. 
said,  "  Excuse  me,  sir,  for  troubling  you ;  but  I  forgot  to  ask 
you  how  long  you  had  lived  in  this  healthy  part  of  the  coun- 
try. I  want  to  make  a  note  of  it." 

"  Well,  pshaw !  didn't  I  tell  you  ?  I  declare,  how  forgetful 
I  am  gittin' !  I  kem  here,  sir,  in  '46;  and,  if  you  jest  wait 
a  minute,  I'll  tell  you  the  remarkablest  and  most  mirak'lous"  — 

The  doctor  did  not  wait ;  and  the  most  remarkable  event  that 
may  have  occurred  in  that  healthy  neck  of  the  woods  in  the 
year  '46  may  remain  unrecorded  forever. 


io8 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    IX. 


1  f\"\  >4  C )  y>f  C~  PAST  us>  *n  kands  °f twos  anc* 

Q)  !  V\y  '  /  W  ,  threes,  rushed  laughing,  shout- 
ing darkies,  —  the  men  notable 
for  their  awkwardness  of  seat, 
gorgeousness  of  necktie,  and 
the  amount  of  flop  in  their 
elbows ;  the  women,  more 
graceful  riders  than  the  men, 
some  with  riding-habits  of  va- 
rious styles  and  colors,  some 
without,  but  all  wearing  cotton  sun-bonnets,  and  nineteen  out 
of  a  possible  twenty  chewing  snuff. 

What  could  this  concourse  of  jovial  humanity  mean  ?  Was 
there  a  circus  in  the  neighborhood  ?  or  was  some  unfortunate 
horse-speculator  about  to  be  lynched  to  make  a  Texas  holiday  ? 
It  could  not  be  a  circus  ;  for  the  people  were  going  away  from 
town,  and  riding  in  the  direction  of  the  woods.  The  projectors 
of  a  lynching  matinee  seldom  give  the  public  sufficient  notice 
to  enable  them  to  attend  the  obsequies  in  time.  The  doctor 
solved  the  enigma  by  the  very  simple  expedient  of  asking  the 
first  negro  who  came  along. 

"  Camp-meetin',  sah,  ob  de  African  branch  ob  de  Methodis' 
Church." 

The  doctor  took  the  witness,  and,  after  some  pertinent  and 
impertinent  questions,  enticed  the  following  information  out  of 
him  :  the  camp-meeting  ground  was  in  a  grove  about  a  mile 
and  a  half  off  our  route.  The  people  had  begun  to  arrive  the 
evening  before.  They  anticipated  having  a  good  time.  Broth- 
er Brown,  a  celebrated  exhorter, — the  great  gun  of  the  occa- 


GOING    TO    CAMP-MEETING.  109 

sion,  —  was  expected  to  arrive  upon  the  ground  that  morning. 
The  meeting  was  to  last  two  weeks,  and  a  "powerful  sight"  of 
people  were  expected  to  attend.  Hostile  movements  against 
the  strongholds*bf  sin  and  Satan  were  to  be  inaugurated  by  the 
discharge  of  the  aforementioned  piece  of  ordnance  at  noon  that 
day.  Here  was  the  chance  to  avail  ourselves  of  an  opportunity 
we  had  long  been  hoping  for,  —  to  see  the  often-described  camp- 
meeting  of  the  Southern  negro  ;  no  burnt-cork  and  music-hall 
imitation,  but  a  real  affair  of  the  none-genuine-without-the- 
name-blown-in-the-bottle  sort. 

We  concluded  to  go  and  spend  the  day,  seeing  what  was  to 
be  seen,  and  hearing  what  was  to  be  heard,  at  the  camp-meet- 
ing. Following  the  crowd,  we  soon  left  the  road  on  which  we 
had  been  riding.  Turning  to  the  left,  and  descending  a  gentle 
elevation  on  the  prairie,  we  looked  down  on  a  beautiful  plain 
dotted  over  with  groves  of  timber.  A  small  stream  meandered 
through  this  grass  and  flower-carpeted  valley.  On  its  banks, 
and  in  the  largest  grove,  was  the  camp-ground,  —  tents  made 
of  canvas,  whose  component  parts  were  tattered  patch-work 
quilts,  and  remnants  of  female  garments  ;  huts  built  of  earth 
and  rocks  ;  and  arbors  walled  with  branches,  and  roofed  with 
leaves  and  moss.  Their  tabernacles  were  arranged  with  some 
resemblance  to  streets  and  squares.  In  the  central  square  was 
the  arbor,  —  the  grand  stand,  as  the  sporting  instincts  of  the 
unregenerate  doctor  prompted  him  to  call  it.  This  structure 
consisted  of  posts,  probably  ten  feet  in  height,  sunk  in  the 
ground.  These  supported  a  roof  of  branches,  moss,  and  leaves, 
covering  an  area  of  perhaps  a  quarter  of  an  acre.  The  floor 
was  carpeted  with  leaves  to  a  depth  of  several  inches.  Rude 
benches  afforded  seats  for  several  hundred  worshippers. 

At  one  end  was  the  preacher's  stand,  —  a  platform  of  logs,  on 
which  were  two  barrels  with  a  board  on  top  of  them  for  a  desk. 
Chairs  for  the  preachers  were  on  the  platform,  and  the  conven- 
tional pitcher  and  glass  rested  on  the  end  of  one  of  the  barrels. 

Looking  down  on  the  scene  in  the  valley  below,  we  saw  peo- 
ple radiating  to  a  common  centre,  coming  from  a  distance  of 
ten  miles  on  every  side.  The  majority  were  on  horseback, 
some  in  ox-wagons,  a  few  in  buggies,  but  none  on  foot. 


I  IO 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


Around  the  camp-ground  were  rows  of  wagons ;  hundreds  of 
horses  and  oxen  were  staked  all  around,  feeding  on  the  luxuri- 
ant prairie-grass  ;  others  were  being  led  or  driven  to  the  stream 
for  water.  The  crowds  arriving;  the  noise  of  unhitching;  the 
"  Whoa,  Brandy  !  "  "  Gee,  Brown  !  "  of  the  dusky  drivers  ;  the 
cracking  of  whips ;  and  the  boisterous  greeting  of  friends  and 
acquaintances,  —  made  one  of  the  most  animated  and  novel 
scenes  I  ever  beheld. 

"  Howdy,  Jake  ?     How  is  ye  ? " 

"  I's  tolerable,  thanky,  Pete.     How  is  you  gettin'  along  ?" 
"  I's  tolerable.     How's  your  folks  ? " 
"  They's  tolerable.     How's  you'ns  ? " 
"  Oh,  they's  all  keepin'  kind  o'  tolerable  !  " 
And  so  on,  through  inquiries  relative  to  the  health  and  pros- 
perity of  a  whole  tribe  of  kinsfolk  and  friends.     A  negro  never 
likes  to  commit  himself  in  the  matter  of  a  statement  regarding 

his  health.  He  seldom  admits 
being  in  any  more  robust  condi- 
tion than  that  expressed  by  the 
negro's  favorite  term,  "  tolera- 
ble." 

Just  as  we  arrived  on  the 
ground,  a  man  with  a  huge  tin 
horn  mounted  a  stump,  and 
poured  forth  his  soul  in  strains 
of  prodigious  volume  and  dia- 
bolical cadence.  The  sound  of 
his  horn  was  the  warning  note'of 
preparation,  given  half  an  hour  be- 
fore the  preaching  was  to  begin. 
Hitching  our  horses  to  a  tree, 
we  proceeded  to  the  arbor.  We 
were  not  a.  minute  too  soon  to  get  a  seat.  The  benches  were 
divided  into  two  rows  by  an  aisle.  On  one  side  were  the 
seats  occupied  by  the  female  portion  of  the  audience ;  on  the 
other  side  sat  the  men  ;  and  around  in  front  of  the  preacher's 
stand  was  an  open  space  fenced  off  by  a  row  of  reserved  seats 
for  the  mourners.  Several  uncles  with  shining  bald  heads,  val- 


THE    HORN-FIEND. 


THE  HYMN.  — THE  PRAYER.  Ill 

uable  for  their  responsive  abilities,  and  a  few  unctious  old  aun- 
ties celebrated  for  their  shouting-qualities,  had  seats  in  the 
front  row.  The  rest  of  the  audience  more  than  filled  the  arbor. 
Many  were  sitting  outside  on  the  ground,  under  the  shade  of 
the  surrounding  trees.  Five  preachers  sat  on  the  platform. 
We  afterwards  learned  that  only  one  of  the  five  could  write. 
Some  of  them  could  only  read  with  great  labor  and  much  spell- 
ing ;  yet  all  of  them,  like  Timothy,  knew  the  Scriptures  from 
their  youth  up.  The  negroes'  wonderful  powers  of  memorizing 
served  them  to  good  purpose.  They  could  recite  any  number 
of  hymns,  and  even  long  chapters,  without  looking  at  the 
book. 

While  we  were  wondering  how  the  exercises  would  begin,  the 
tin-horn  fiend  brayed  forth  his  second  warning.  As  the  vile 
sound  died  away,  a  solemn  silence  fell  on  the  assembly,  broken 
in  a  few  seconds  by  one  of  the  ancient  sisters  in  a  quavering 
voice  beginning  to  sing  "The  Old  Ship  of  Zion,"  —  a  favorite 
hymn  at  all  times  with  the  negro,  who  loves  a  lively  chorus  bet- 
ter than  sense  or  appropriate  words. 

Before  the  second  line  was  sung,  five  hundred  voices  had 
joined  in,  and  were  singing  with  a  force  that  threatened  to 
crack  the  firmament  above.  The  volume  of  sound  was  immense. 
There  was  nothing  cultivated  or  elaborate  about  it.  There  was 
not  a  trace  of  Italian  opera  in  it ;  but  there  was  music  there,  — 
music  in  the  rough,  and  mixed  probably,  but  music  nevertheless. 
When  the  first  hymn  had  been  sung,  a  preacher  arose  and  read 
another,  two  lines  at  a  time. 

After  the  singing  of  this  hymn,  a  gray-haired  brother  led  in 
prayer.  He  asked  the  Lord  to  be  with  us  during  the  continu- 
ance of  the  meeting ;  to  lead  the  sinners  from  the  "  arrows  of 
their  ways,  and  pluck  dem  like  branders  from  de  burnin' ; "  and 
to  "make  a  powerful  sight  ob  rattlin'  'mong  de  dry  bones." 
He  requested  the  Lord  to  keep  an  eye  on  the  young  men  who 
were  in  the  habit  of  bringing  whiskey  to  the  camp,  and  disturb- 
ing the  worship,  and  asked,  that,  if  milder  means  would  not  be 
effective,  he  might  "send  de  lightnin'  from  heaben,  and  break 
de  bottles  in  der  pockets,  right  whar  dey  stand." 

During  the  prayer,  brethren  and  sisters  in  the  audience  punc- 


112  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

tuated  the  petitioner's  sentences  with  loud-spoken  responses, 
—  "  Amen  !  "  "  Yes,  Lord  !  "  "  Thank  God  !  "  etc. 

The  prayer  was  couched  in  uncouth  and  ungrammatical  lan- 
guage ;  but  the  evident  sincerity  of  the  suppliant,  his  child-like 
faith,  his  unselfish  petition,  and  his  confidence  in  God's  willing- 
ness to  hear  and  answer  prayer,  would  have  banished  the  sneer 
or  smile  from  the  face  of  any  but  a  heartless  fool,  and  would 
have  commanded  the  respect  of  all  good  men. 

After  prayer,  the  local  preacher  of  the  district,  a  young  man 
of  some  education,  and  fluent  of  speech,  made  several  an- 
nouncements, read  a  chapter  and  commented  on  it.  Very  few 
negro  peculiarities  were  to  be  noticed  in  his  speech  or  the 
intonation  of  his  voice  ;  yet,  although  he  was  evidently  more 
learned  than  Brother  Brown,  he  was  not  credited  with  so  much 
ability  as  that  man  of  powerful  gifts. 

Brother  Brown  was  an  uneducated  field-hand  in  slavery  times. 
After  the  war,  without  any  other  preparation  than  the  purchase 
of  a  tall  hat,  he  began  to  preach  ;  and,  at  the  time  we  saw  him, 
he  had  acquired  a  wonderful  reputation  as  a  "mighty  movin' 
preacher."  He  was  a  powerful  rattler  of  dry  bones.  He  had 
never  been  known  to  preach  a  sermon  without  bringing  some 
of  his  hearers  to  the  shouting-point.  Under  his  ministrations, 
conversions,  so-called,  were  assured  facts,  —  matters  to  be  cal- 
culated on  as  soon  as  he  was  announced  to  preach. 

After  another  hymn  had  been  sung,  Brother  Brown  arose, 
and  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

"  Brederin  an'  sisters,  by  turnin"  to  de  good  book,  in  de  fourth 
chapter  ob  de  Secon'  Book  ob  Kings,  yo'  will  find  whar  de  sons 
ob  de  prophet  say  to  Elishar,  '  O  man  ob  God !  dar  is  death  in 
de  pot.'  Dis  yar  text  am  full  ob  meanin'  to  dem  as  kin  under- 
stand it.  Dat  yo'  may  comprehend  de  follerin'  elucidations, 
I's  gwine  ter  divide  it  inter  two  heads,  —  first  an'  fo'most  ob 
dese  is  death  ;  an',  secondly  an'  lastly,  is  de  pot. 

"My  hearers,  death  is  a  solum  fac'.  It's  solum  to  all  crit- 
ters, from  de  littlest  chicken  to  de  la'gest  man  ;  but  dar's  a 
differunse  'tween  de  chicken  an'  de  man.  After  de  chicken's 
done  dead,  yo'  knows  whar  he's  gwine  to, — at  least,  I  spec' 
some  ob  yo'  brederin  is  'sperienced  on  dat  subjec' ;  but  de 


THE   TEXT:   "DEATH  IN  DE  POT."  113 

man,  when  de  'stroyin'  angel  ob  death  says,  '  Dis  yar  night  yo' 
soul  will  be  required  ob  yo','  • — who  can  tell  whar  he  is  gwine  ? 
Ef  he  has  lived  righteous,  paid  his  debts,  an'  lubbed  de  good 
Lord,  his  soul  is  at  once  intermitted  to  de  kingdom  ob  heaben, 
whar  de  streets  is  ob  gold,  an'  whar  moths  are  not  corrupt,  an' 
de  thieves  do  not  break  through  nor  steal ;  but,  ef  he  has  died 
widout  savin'  grace,  he's  gwine  down  whar  de  worm  gnaws,  an' 


'A    MIGHTY    MOVIN'    PREACHER." 


de  brimstone  fire  burns,  froo  all  de  regions  ob  etarnity.  No, 
sisters  !  no,  brudders  !  yo'  can't  mos'  always  sometimes  tell  whar 
folks  is  gwine  when  dey  die,  —  leastwise,  not  by  obsarvin'  der 
actions  hyar.  Dey  may  gib  a  gorjis  'sperience  in  meetin' ;  dey 
may  shout  de  shingles  off'n  de  roof  in  class-meetin'  ;  dey  may 
pray  in  de  pra'r-meetin'  louder'n  a  railroad  train  gwine  ober  a 
tressle,  —  an'  den,  on  sec'lar  'casions,  sich  as  when  dey  hab  ter 
8 


114  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

pay  de  dog-tax,  or  when  de  oxins  don't  gee  to  suit  'em,  dey  will 
swar  like  all  possesst,  an'  cuss  wuss'n  a  steamboat  capting. 

"Yes,  brederin,  hit's  mighty  onsartin  to  figger  on  :  but  one 
thing  yo'  is  sho  ob ;  one  thing  is  as  sartin  as  cold  vittles  on 
washin'-day,  an'  dat  dar  sartinty  is  death — death  to  all  ob  us. 
Death  is  all  aroun'  us,  —  it's  in  de  a'r,  in  de  water ;  it's  in  mules, 
and  oder  guns  yo'  didn't  know  was  loaded ;  it's  eben,  as  our 
tex'  tells  us,  in  de  pot.  Yes,  death  is  sho;  an'  de  judgment 
day  is  a  comin',  an'  when  de  rocks  will  split,  an'  de  mountins 
fall ;  when  de  elements  will  melt  wid  ferocious  heat,  an'  de 
heabens  depart  like  a — a  —  like  a — .  But  to  resume.  Dis 
yar  tex'  ob  mine  tells  us  dat  dar's  death  in  de  pot.  What  pot  ? 
Brederin,  de  pot  spoken  ob  hyar  is  a  rigger  ob  speech,  an'  means 
sin.  It  means  de  whiskey-bottle ;  it  means  stealin'  an'  lyin' 
an'  sabbath-breakin'  an'  votin'  de  Dimerkratic  ticket,  an'  de 
debbil's  work  ginrally.  Fur  example  :  look  at  de  'spression 
yo'  may  hev  of 'n  heard  when  one  man  tells  anoder  to  '  go  to 
pot.'  What  wur  de  signification  ob  dat  dar  'spression.  Nothin' 
mo'  nor  less  dan  a  perlite  way  ob  tellin'  him  to  go  to  de  debbil. 

"  Now,  dis  yar  pot  ob  wickedness  an'  'bomination  is  a  bilin,' 
even  in  dis  yar  neighborhood.  I's  done  felt  de  fumes  ob  it 
right  in  dis  meetin'.  It's  filled  wid  de  debbil's  broth.  De 
congredients  ob  de  broth  is  made  up  ob  balls  an'  dances,  ob 
kyard-playin'  an'  late  hours,  ob  swarin'  an'  lyin',  ob  circuses, 
an'  ob  meet-me-up-de-alley-after-supper's-ober.  De  debbil  his- 
self  done  put  whiskey  in  to  season  de  mess;  an'  mos'  ob  yo' 
likes  it,  an',  when  yo'  gits  de  chance,  swallers  it  like  iled  molas- 
ses, as  I  might  'spress  it  in  a  kind  ob  figgerative  way.  But  it's 
bad  med'cin,  sho's  yo'  born.  As  de  tex'  tells  us,  dar's  death  in 
de  pot ;  an'  dis  yar  death  means  hell.  Yo'  may  p'r'aps  taste  ob 
de  contents  ob  de  pot.  Yo'  may  take  a  few  spoonfuls  now  an' 
agin,  as  it  war,  an'  yo'  may  recover.  De  good  Lord  is  mighty 
ter  save  ;  but  ef  yo'  take  a  full  meal,  an'  feel  like  yo'  want  some 
mo',  den  good-by,  nigger !  In  view  ob  de  sartinty  ob  death,  an' 
de  onreliableness  ob  life,  we  should  be  makin'  preparation  for 
de  future." 

Following  this  came  an  exhortation  of  about  an  hour's 
length.  The  foregoing  was  spoken  in  a  deliberate  manner, 


RELIGIOUS  PAROXYSMS.  115 

and  in  a  moderate  tone.  Gradually,  as  the  preacher  advanced 
in  his  theme,  his  voice  became  louder,  and,  in  proportion  as  he 
warmed  to  his  work,  his  speech  became  more  fluent,  and  his 
gestures  more  demonstrative.  The  ejaculations  of  the  audi- 
ence increased  in  about  the  same  ratio  as  that  of  the  preacher's 
voice.  His  fervor  was  contagious ;  his  excitement  communi- 
cated itself  to  the  people ;  and,  toward  the  end,  the  whole  audi- 
ence began  swaying  their  bodies  backwards  and  forwards,  and 
indorsed  the  preacher's  doctrines  with  continuous  groans  and 
shrill  cries.  And  when  he  rounded  off  a  thundering  sentence, 
and  paused  to  wipe  the  perspiration  off  his  forehead,  the  pious 
applause  culminated  in  a  perfect  storm  of  cries  and  amens. 

It  was  in  the  old  man's  peroration  that  he  came  out  strong, 
and  showed  the  secret  of  his  popularity.  He  described  heaven 
as  a  city  of  golden  streets,  an  elysium  of  leisure,  a  milk  and 
honey  land  of  Canaan  ;  the  home  of  everlasting  song ;  a  place 
where  hunger,  thirst,  and  want  never  came,  and  where  hoes 
were  unknown,  and  the  sound  of  the  buck-saw  never  heard. 
He  painted  in  brilliant  colors  the  triumphant  entry  of  the 
colored  soldiers  of  the  cross  into  the  New  Jerusalem,  and  their 
glorious  reception  by  the  white-robed  angels,  who  would  con- 
duct them  to  "de  table  ob  de  Lamb."  Suddenly  his  beaming 
countenance  changed  ;  and  with  horror  in  the  expression  of  his 
eye,  and  terror  in  the  gestures  of  his  hands,  he  drew  a  picture 
of  the  judgment  day,  and  of  the  seething  caldron  of  a  sulphu- 
rous hell,  where  the  wicked  shall  dwell  throughout  all  the 
endless  ages  of  an  eternity  of  woe. 

The  groans  of  his  audience  became  louder  as  he  proceeded ; 
and,  before  the  completion  of  his  terrible  picture,  one  after 
another  —  as  many  as  a  dozen  of  his  hearers,  mostly  on  the 
sister's  side  of  the  arbor  —  lay  writhing  on  the  ground  shrieking 
for  mercy.  Some  of  them  were  very  violent,  and  it  took  three 
stout  men  to  hold  each  of  them.  They  leaped  up  in  the  air, 
clapping  their  hands  above  their  heads,  and  calling,  "  Mercy ! 
Mercy !  Glory  be  to  God ! "  etc.  Some  of  them,  in  their 
paroxysms,  tore  their  own  clothes,  and  thinned  the  wool  on  the 
heads  of  those  who  were  holding  them. 

The  regular  service  had  now  come  to  an  end ;  but  the  major- 


116  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

ity  of  the  audience  stood  around,  singing  over  the  prostrate 
forms  of  the  "  mourners."  One  by  one  the  howling  mourners 
became  exhausted,  and  fell  down  on  the  ground  groaning  and 
struggling.  Around  each  gathered  a  crowd  of  brethren  and 
sisters,  who  sang  some  of  their  choruses,  accompanied  by  gyra- 
tions of  body,  and  clapping  of  hands.  The  air  of  most  of  these 
choruses  had  a  strong  flavor  of  tambourine  and  bones.  We 
heard  one  hymn  sung  to  the  air  of  "  Camptown  Races."  The 
words  are  often  meaningless,  but  the  songs  are  sung  with 
a  force  and  enthusiasm  that  would  make  a  deaf-mute  howl. 
The  singing  is  considered  a  very  effectual  help  in  the  conver- 
sion of  the  prostrate  mourners,  and  usually  continues  until  he 
or  she  experiences  religion,  and  rises  off  the  ground  —  clothed, 
not  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  but  in  leaves  and  dust  —  shouting, 
"  Glory !  glory  !  glory  !  " 

Sometimes  they  are  not  converted  under  these  ministrations  ; 
but  usually  an  hour's  wriggling  in  the  dust,  with  forty  or  fifty 
perspiring  brethren  and  sisters  crowding  around  them,  and  the 
singing  of  a  dozen  hymns  of  fifty  verses  each,  is  found  to  be  an 
effectual  means  of  grace.  The  following  is  a  sample  of  one  of 
the  hymns  heard  :  — 

"  Come  down,  Gabriel !  blow  de  horn ; 
Call  me  home  in  de  early  morn ; 
Send  de  chariot  down  dis  way : 
Come  and  take  me  home  to  stay. 

CHORUS. 

"  O  angels  !  meet  me  at  de  cross-roads,  meet  me ; 
Angels,  meet  me  at  de  cross-roads,  meet  me ; 
Angels,  meet  on  de  cross-roads,  meet  me : 
Don't  charge  a  sinner  toll. 

"  I's  libed  for  months,  and  I's  libed  for  years; 

Can't  get  used  to  my  weeping  tears  ; 

Lost  my  way  on  de  road  in  sin  : 

Wake  up,  angels  !  pass  me  in. 

CHORUS. 
"  Dem  angels  ain't  got  long  to  wait ; 

Dey's  standing  now  at  de  golden  gate : 

When  we  get  dar  on  de  todder  shore, 

Dey'll  go  inside,  and  dey'll  shut  de  door." 

CHORUS. 


LOST  IN  THE    WOODS.  II 7 

When  the  known  words  of  a  hymn  run  short,  they  frequently 
improvise.  At  these  camp-meetings  two-thirds  of  the  day  and 
a  great  part  of  the  night  are  occupied  with  religious  exercise. 
Only  a  few  hours  are  allowed  for  sleep :  the  remainder  of  the 
time  is  devoted  to  watermelons.  At  night  the  grounds  are 
lighted  with  lanterns  hanging  from  the  branches  of  the  trees, 
and  with  pine-pitch  fires  kept  constantly  burning  on  altar-like 
platforms.  As  I  look  around  on  this  scene,  and  see  a  man 
struggling  on  the  ground,  shouting,  "  Mercy,  mercy ! "  while  a 
circle  of  excited  negroes,  hand  in  hand,  dance  around  him, 
singing  their  wild  songs,  with  the  fitful  glare  of  the  camp-fires 
lighting  up  the  immediate  surroundings,  and  the  gloomy  depth 
of  the  forest  making  an  appropriate  background  to  the  picture, 
—  I  cannot  help  thinking  of  the  ancestors  of  these  people 
back  in  the  depth  of  African  jungles,  of  their  miserable  super- 
stitions, and  of  their  dances  around  the  victims  prepared  for 
human  sacrifices  ;  and  I  wonder  if  the  veil  that  separates  the 
savage  from  the  civilized  Ethiopian  is  of  much  more  enduring 
material  than  calico  dresses,  jean  pants,  and  a  questionable 
proprietary  interest  in  the  contents  of  the  ballot-box. 

We  staid  at  the  camp-meeting  until  late  in  the  night.  We 
camped  a  slight  distance  from  the  camp-ground,  and  were  up, 
had  breakfast,  and  were  all  aboard,  half  an  hour  after  sunrise. 
We  lost  our  way  ;  and  wandering  around  in  search  of  some  one 
to  direct  us,  we  found  a  house  inhabited  by  a  white  man  who 
looked  as  if  he  were  suffering  with  the  dry  rot,  and  the  effects 
of  "  fry  "  as  a  regular  article  of  diet.  We  inquired  of  him  the 
way  to  Columbus. 

"Just  go  round  the  fence  thar,  by  the  calf-pen,  till  you  come 
to  the  road ;  and  then  keep  the  main  plain  road  (you  can't 
miss  it)  till  you  come  to  a  fork  in  the  road.  Keep  the  plainest 
trail  till  you  come  to  a  big  live-oak  standing  a  little  to  the 
right.  Then  to  the  left  of  that,  you  bear  some  to  the  south, 
and  keep  on  the  most  travelled  road  straight  to  the  crick. 
When  you  come  to  Smith's  pasture,  take  the  left  —  no,  I 
believe  it's  the  right:  yes,  the  right  hand  —  till  you  come  to 
a  fork  in  the  road.  One  is  the  big  Bastrop  road :  the  other 
will  take  you  right  to  Columbus. 


Il8  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  No  :  thar's  no  chance  for  you  to  get  put  out.  It  is  a  plain, 
straightforward  road  all  the  way.  You  can't  mistake  it,  if  you 
follow  them  thar  directions  ;  but,  when  you  cross  the  crick,  be 
sure  and  leave  the  corn-field  to  your  left." 

The  doctor  told  him  that  there  was  no  danger  of  us  taking 
the  corn-field  with  us :  we  really  didn't  need  it ;  and,  as  far  as 
we  were  concerned,  it  would  be  left  for  the  present. 

This  pleasantry  was  lost  on  the  sick-looking  native.  He  did 
not  look  as  if  he  would  know  the  difference  between  a  joke  and 
a  pterodactyl  of  the  silurian  period,  if  he  were  to  meet  them 
both  in  broad  daylight. 

In  the  matter  of  furnishing  verbose  directions  to  enable  a 
man  to  lose  his  way  successfully,  the  native  Texan  has  no 
equal.  He  tells  you  he  came  here  "  before  the  woods  were 
burned."  He  claims  to  know  every  cow-path  in  the  State. 
Distance  does  not  daunt  him.  He  will  just  as  glibly  give  you 
directions  as  to  the  route  between  Austin  and  Presidio  del 
Norte  (seven  hundred  miles)  as  he  will  direct  you  how  to  pro- 
ceed from  the  court-house  to  the  railroad-depot,  situated  on  the 
frontier  of  the  fifth  ward ;  and  his  directions,  if  carefully  fol- 
lowed, will  assist  you  in  losing  your  way  just  as  much  in  the 
one  instance  as  in  the  other. 

The  doctor  claims,  that  it  was  the  original  ancestor  of  the 
native  Texan  who  started  the  children  of  Israel  when  they  left 
Egypt,  and  that  it  was  his  vague  directions  that  caused  them 
to  wander  forty  years  in  the  wilderness. 

The  reason  that  the  Texan's  directions  are  so  unsatisfactory 
is,  that  he  assumes  more  than  the  circumstances  warrant.  He 
assumes  that  you  know  certain  places  and  things,  —  that,  as  a 
stranger,  of  course  you  are  ignorant  of,  —  somewhat  after  the 
manner  of  the  hotel-clerk  in  Houston,  when  I  inquired  of  him 
as  to  the  location  of  the  post-office.  He  said,  "  Next  door 
below  Williams  &  Schwazenbergen's." 

"  But  where  does  Williams  and  —  and  the  Dutchman  live  ?  " 
said  I. 

"  Why,  you  know  No.  3's  engine-house  ?  It  is  right  opposite 
to  that." 

"But  I  don't  know  No.  3's  engine-house." 


A   BLAZED  ROAD.  119 

"Well,  then,  go  down  as  if  you  were  going  to  the  jail,  and,  a 
block  this  side  of  there,  turn  down  in  the  direction  of  the  high 
school.  After  you  go,  say,  two  blocks,  you  will  find  the  post- 
office  on  the  other  side  of  the  street." 

I  hired  a  hack ;  and  after  paying  the  driver  his  fare  of  half  a 
dollar,  and  buying  him  a  copy  of  the  city  directory,  I  got  to  the 
post-office. 

The  doctor  says,  that,  if  he  were  to  undertake  to  fall  down  a 
well  according  to  directions  received  from  a  native  Texan,  he 
is  satisfied  he  would  lose  his  way  before  he  could  reach  the 
bottom. 

What  the  people  call  roads  in  Texas  are  merely  tracks  made 
by  wagon-wheels.  They  seldom  show  any  improvement  on 
what  nature  and  wheeled  vehicles  made  them.  On  sloping 
ground,  where  the  soil  is  light,  the  roads  wash  in  wet  weather, 
forming  ravines.  One  new  track  after  another  is  made,  parallel 
to  the  original,  until  the  whole  face  of  the  hill  is  furrowed  and 
scarred  with  dangerous  gullies. 

In  the  timbered  country,  roads  are  made  by  simply  cutting 
down  trees,  and  leaving  the  stumps  about  six  to  twelve  inches 
above  the  ground.  These  roads  are  seldom  more  than  ten  feet 
wide. 

There  are  notched  roads  and  blazed  roads.  A  notched  road 
is  one  where  the  trees,  at  intervals  on  one  or  both  sides  of  it, 
have  several  notches  made  in  them  with  an  axe,  for  the  purpose 
of  assuring  the  traveller  that  he  is  really  on  a  road  to  somewhere. 
A  blazed  road  is  the  same,  except  that  the  trees  are  blazed  with 
an  axe,  instead  of  being  notched.  These  marks  are  used  for 
about  the  same  reason  that  the  schoolboy  makes  the  very 
necessary  explanation  to  the  picture  he  has  drawn  on  the  slate : 
"  This  is  a  man."  The  notches  and  blazed  marks  on  the  trees 
say  plainly,  "This  is  a  road."  Without  them,  you  might  mis- 
take it  for  the  track  of  a  tornado. 

On  the  prairie  the  traveller  sometimes  finds  that  a  road  gets 
less  distinct  as  he  proceeds.  Gradually,  from  a  broad  and 
well-defined  trail,  it  contracts  to  a  twelve-inch  path,  and  then 
fades  away  on  the  open  plain,  or  spreads  out  into  a  dozen  lesser 
trails,  going  in  different  directions.  These  roads  are  made  by 


I2O 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


cattle  going  to  and  returning  from  water,  and  are  very  bewil- 
dering to  the  inexperienced  traveller. 

We  did  not  find  the  "main  plain  road  "  until  the  next  day; 
but  we  kept  on  riding  west,  as  we  knew  that  our  route  lay  due 
west. 


IN  SEARCH  OF   WATER.  121 


CHAPTER    X. 


v\  WERE  out  on  the  prairie,  and  were 
\]  suffering  from  thirst.  We  had  trav- 
elled from  six  o'clock  in  the  morning 
until  one  in  the  afternoon  without 
having  found  any  water.  We  had  not  seen  a  human  habitation 
since  the  evening  before,  and  were  despairing  of  finding  one, 
when  the  doctor  discovered  a  house  in  the  distance.  It  was  a 
small  wooden  structure,  apparently  about  three  miles  off,  — 
probably  a  section-house  on  the  railway,  or  the  ranch  of  some 
stockman.  At  any  rate,  the  probabilities  were,  that  there  was 
a  well  there,  and,  as  a  consequence,  water.  Encouraged  by  the 
thought  of  a  cooling  draught  of  that  best  of  all  beverages  pre- 
pared for  thirsty  humanity  in  the  distillery  of  nature,  we  per- 
suaded our  ponies  to  assume  a  more  animated  gait. 

Distances  on  the  prairie  are  deceptive.  An  apparent  stretch 
of  a  mile  has  a  sinful  way  of  lengthening  itself  out,  until,  when 
you  get  to  the  end  of  it,  it  has  assumed  the  proportion  of  a 
sabbath-day' s  journey.  Probably  the  clearness  .of  the  atmos- 
phere accounts  for  the  phenomenon.  The  estimated  three  miles 
that  intervened  between  us  and  the  objective  point  we  were 
riding  to  stretched  out  apparently  to  the  very  crack  of  doom, 
wherever  that  is. 

At  last  we  reached  the  house,  after  riding  at  least  five  miles 
from  where  we  first  saw  it.  We  found  it  inhabited  by  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  O'Lafferty,  and  a  cheerful  family  of  pigs. 

Mrs.  O'Lafferty  was  a  foreigner. 

Mr.  O'Lafferty  was  section  boss  of  No. ,  on  the  G.,  H.,  & 

S.  A.  Railroad  ;  that  is,  he  superintended  the  hands  working 
on  that  section. 


122  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Mrs.  O'Lafferty  superintended  Mr.  O'Lafferty. 

Mr.  O'Lafferty  was  a  small  man,  gentle  of  speech,  affluent  of 
upper  lip,  and  submissive  in  the  presence  of  Mrs.  O'Lafferty. 

Mrs.  O'Lafferty  was  a  female  of  fifty  summers,  spare  of 
frame,  voluble  of  tongue,  and  ignorant  of  punctuation.  She 
spoke  the  English  language  with  a  foreign  accent.  She  ignored 
commas,  only  threw  in  a  semicolon  when  she  had  to  pause  for 
breath  ;  and  her  conversation  never  knew  a  period,  except  when 
she  went  to  sleep. 

Mr.  O'Lafferty 's  hair  was  arranged  with  careless  grace  in  the 
cottage-eve  style,  and  showed  evidences  of  having  been  ampu- 
tated by  a  dull  pair  of  scissors  in  the  hands  of  Mrs.  O'Lafferty. 

Mrs.  O'Lafferty's  hair  was  coiled  in  a  classic  knot  on  the 
back  of  her  head,  so  tight  that  ,it  suggested  a  reason  for  the 
corners  of  her  mouth  being  drawn  up  in  such  close  proximity 
to  her  ears. 

Mr.  O'Lafferty  wore  corduroy  breeches  and  No.  10  brogans. 

Mrs.  O'Lafferty  wore  the  breeches,  in  a  metaphorical  sense, 
and,  for  the  sake  of  coolness  and  economy,  went  barefooted. 

These  parties  lived  in  a  rough  box-house  of  two  rooms  beside 
the  railroad  track,  and  on  a  treeless  prairie  where  their  nearest 
neighbors  were  miles  away.  As  we  rode  up  to  the  door  of  the 
cabin,  we  met  Mrs.  O'Lafferty. 

"  Yis,  sur  :  sure,  an'  yer  welcome  to  a  dhrink  of  wather,  an' 
glory  be  to  God  we  have  plinty  of  that  same.  —  The  divil  swape 
ye  for  pigs,  can't  ye  kape  out  of  the  gintlemen's  way?  —  Jist 
hitch  yer  horses  to  that  fence  there.  —  Tim  !  Tim  !  bad  cess  to 
ye,  yer  always  in  the  way  whin  yer  not  wanted  ;  an',  whin  yer 
naded,  ye  can't  be  found  at  all.  Yer  there,  are  you  ?  Don't 
yer  see  the  gintlemen  want  wather  ?  —  Walk  in,  sur,  and  sit 
down.  —  Draw  a  bucket  of  wather,  an'  don't  be  all  day  about 
it,  now.  —  Wud  yes  like  a  cup  of  coffee  ?  Sure,  an'  it's  no 
throuble  at  all  to  git  it  ready.  They  all  dhrink  coffee  in  this 
country ;  but  I  always  like  the  tay  best  mesilf,  not  to  spake  of 
the  coffee-grounds,  that  can't  be  good  for  the  stummick.  The 
tay  has  far  more  substance  in  it,  though  what  we  get  here  is 
nothing  like  what  we  used  to  hev  in  the  ould  country. 

"  Ye  don't  say  !    An'  yes  travelled  through  Ireland  last  year  ? 


MR.    O'LAFFERTY  BURNED   THE  BISCUITS.      123 

Jist  think  of  that,  now !  An'  did  yes  know  any  thing  of  the 
McGuires  of  Ballymacashel  ?  Sure,  an'  they  were  the  divil's 
playboys, — always  gettin'  into  some  trouble,  shootin'  at  land- 
lords, fightin'  at  fairs,  and  other  divarsions.  They  were  kins- 


ARRIVAL    AT    THE    O'LAFFERTYS. 


folks  to  my  ould  man  here  ;  but  I  niver  had  no  more  use  for  the 
likes  of  thim  than  the  divil  has  for  holy  wather.  Me  mother 
(God  be  good  to  her !)  was  an  O'Nale,  of  the  ould  stock  of  the 
red-handed  O'Nales.  I  expect  some  day  to  —  Mother  o'  Moses! 
if  that  ould  rip  hasn't  gone  and  burned  thim  biscuits  ! "  The 


124  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"ould  rip"  was  Mr.  O'Lafferty,  who  was  filling  a  temporary  en- 
gagement as  assistant  culinary  mechanic.  "  I  wish  he  would 
stay  out  on  the  road  wid  the  men :  he's  always  doin'  some  divil- 
ment  when  he's  at  home.  Ah,  yis  !  he's  a  foine  help  to  me, 
like  Mrs.  Murphy  kept  shop  in  New  York;  but  I'll  tache  him  to 
burn  biscuits  another  time." 

Off  to  the  kitchen  went  Mrs.  O'Lafferty  to  superintend  her 
conjugal  yoke-fellow.  From  certain  suggestive  sounds  that 
reached  our  ears,  we  suspect  that  she  was  teaching  him,  and 
that  he  was  skirmishing.  This  was  the  dark  side  of  Mr. 
O'Lafferty's  life.  Having  adjusted  matters  in  the  kitchen,  and 
before  we  had  recovered  from  the  first  blast,  she  was  again 
upon  us  with  a  fresh  hurricane  of  words.  Escape  was  hopeless. 
Our  attempts  to  take  part  in  the  conversation  were  not  suffi- 
cient to  stem  the  flood  of  information  and  personal  history  that 
was  hurled  against  us  by  this  conversational  cyclone.  In  one 
short  hour  we  learned  the  price  of  eggs,  and  the  best  method 
of  killing  the  cotton-worm  ;  we  were  informed  as  to  the  profits 
of  keeping  an  "  aiting  "  house,  and  the  relative  merits  of  lard 
and  butter  as  a  batter-cake  lubricator ;  we  were  furnished  with 
data  sufficient  to  enable  us  to  write  the  biographies  of  all  the 
O'Laffertys  and  O' Neils  of  six  generations. 

It  is  currently  reported  that  Mrs.  O'Lafferty  has  corns  on 
her  tongue.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  this  is  a  base  slander, 
originating  with  the  owner  of  some  rival  eating-house.  Prob- 
ably, on  an  equally  uncertain  foundation  was  built  the  following 
story  regarding  this  good  lady  :  — 

Mrs.  O'Lafferty  bought  her  groceries  of  Mr.  A in  Rich- 
mond. On  one  occasion  she  purchased  a  dozen  boxes  of 
matches.  On  attempting  to  use  them  at  home,  she  found  that 
none  of  the  matches  would  ignite.  To  say  that  Mrs.  O'Laffer- 
ty got  hot  on  making  this  discovery,  would  be  an  understate- 
ment of  fact.  She  nursed  her  wrath,  and  not  only  succeeded  in 
keeping  it  warm,  but  in  developing  it,  until,  by  the  time  she  made 
her  next  visit  to  Richmond,  it  was  at  a  white  heat,  and  boiling 

over.  Surging  into  Mr.  A 's  store,  she  slammed  the  matches 

down  on  the  counter,  and  thus  addressed  the  proprietor,  — 

"  What  did  ye  take  me  for,  that  ye  wint  and  palmed  off  on 


THE  NORTHER.  125 

me  old  second-hand  toothpicks  like  thim  ?  The  divil  a  wan  av 
them'll  light  at  all." 

"  I  am  surprised,  madam,  to  hear  it,"  said  the  urbane  grocer : 
"I  am  certain  they  are  good  matches,  if  they  have  not  got 
damp.  Let  me  show  you."  And,  taking  up  one  of  the  con- 
demned matches,  he  raised  his  leg, — after  the  manner  of  men, 
—  and,  giving  the  match  a  flip  along  the  softest  part  of  his 
anatomy,  it  ignited.  "See  there,  madam  !  I  told  you  "  — 

"  Sure,  an'  I  see ;  but,  the  divil  fly  away  wid  ye,  do  ye  sup- 
pose ivery  time  I  have  to  light  a  fire  I'll  come  all  the  way  to 
Richmond  to  sthrike  a  match  on  the  sate  of  your  breeches  ? " 

We  enjoyed  Mrs.  O'Lafferty's  coffee,  although  it  had  no  milk 
in  it ;  and  we  appreciated  the  biscuits,  although  they  had  suf- 
fered at  the  hands  of  the  inexperienced  Tim,  and  looked  as  if 
he  had  sat  on  them.  We  felt  much  more  comfortable,  as  the 
hospitable  and  kind-hearted  Mrs.  O'Lafferty's  parting  "good 
luck  to  ye  "  followed  us  over  the  prairie,  than  we  had  felt  for 
several  days.  As  we  travelled  across  the  prairie,  we  saw  great 
numbers  of  cattle  dotted  over  the  wide  expanse  ;  and  around 
the  water-holes  the  skeleton  of  many  a  cow  told  the  tale  of 
dry  seasons  and  wet  northers.  On  some  of  these  prairies  all 
the  water  in  the  holes  and  gullies  dries  up  during  the  heat  of  the 
summer ;  and,  as  there  are  no  running  streams,  the  cattle  have 
either  to  go  to  some  other  range  where  water  can  be  found,  or 
stay,  and  die  of  thirst.  In  the  winter  the  northers  are  often 
fatal  to  cattle  that  are  weak  and  old. 

The  norther  is  a  copious  breeze  that  comes  to  Texas  from 
the  north.  It  is  like  the  Assyrian  who  came  down  and  caught 
the  wolf  in  the  fold,  or  the  wolf  that  caught  the  Assyrian, 
whichever  it  was.  What  I  mean  to  indicate  is,  that  it  comes 
suddenly  and  unexpectedly,  but  it  does  not  stay  long :  in  fact,  it 
does  not  stop  at  all,  except  about  long  enough  to  take  the  roof 
off  a  barn,  or  turn  an  umbrella  inside  out.  It  is  always  in  a 
hurry,  and  goes  straight  across  the  country.  I  do  not  know 
how  high  or  how  thick  a  norther  is ;  but  an  adult  Texas  norther 
is  several  hundred  miles  wide,  and  so  long,  that,  at  a  go-as-you- 
please  gait,  it  takes  about  forty-eight  hours  to  pass  a  given 
point,  and  it  sometimes  carries  the  point  along  with  it. 


126  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  northers,  —  the  wet  and  the  dry  ;  and 
both  are  exceedingly  cold.  Tongue  cannot  tell,  nor  can  pen 
express,  how  cold  a  norther  feels  to  a  man  who  gets  up  in  the 
night,  at  his  wife's  suggestion,  to  see  if  he  forgot  to  fasten 
down  the  dining-room  window.  The  northers  are  really  not  so 
cold  as  they  are  supposed  to  be.  The  mercury  seldom  registers 
below  twenty-five  degrees  Fahrenheit.  The  cold  is  as  severe 
on  the  people  subjected  to  it  as  a  much  more  severe  cold, 
measured  by  degrees,  would  be  to  a  resident  of  a  more  north- 
ern clime.  It  is  the  contrast  and  sudden  change  that  account 
for  this  fact. 

The  following  pictures,  now  in  my  mind's  eye,  will  illustrate 
what  I  mean.  A  chromo  representing  in  the  foreground  a  man 
dressed  in  a  linen  suit.  His  shirt  is  open  at  the  neck ;  and  he 
is  sitting  on  a  refrigerator,  fanning  himself  with  his  sombrero. 
In  the  background  a  soda-water  fountain,  and  in  the  middle- 
distance  a  perspiring  negro  waiter  coming  with  an  iced  lemon- 
ade. We  might  call  this  picture  "Yesterday  in  Texas."  Next, 
the  same  man  dressed  in  winter  clothes,  a  buffalo  robe  on  his 
shoulders,  and  a  seal-skin  cap  with  ear-flaps  on  his  head.  The 
man  is  sitting  cooking  his  half-soles  at  a  large  wood-stove ; 
while  the  same  waiter,  with  his  teeth  chattering  at  every  pore, 
is  bringing  him  an  oyster-stew  with  red  pepper  in  it.  We  may 
call  this  picture  "  To-day  in  Texas." 

Northers  come  into  market  about  the  end  of  October, 
although  some  years  an  early  variety  develop  in  September. 
Like  the  oyster,  they  are  seasonable  in  all  months  that  have  an 
"  r  "  in  them.  '  A  stranger  who  has  never  seen  a  norther  may 
easily  recognize  the  first  one  when  it  comes  to  town.  The 
stranger  is  sitting  on  the  veranda,  coatless  and  hatless.  He  is 
writing  to  his  mother-in-law  in  Connecticut.  He  dates  his 
letter,  "  San  Antonio,  Oct.  1 1  ; "  and  then  he  writes,  "  This 
is  the  most  genial  climate  in  the  world,  —  the  Italy  of  Amer- 
ica. I  am  glad  that  I  came  here.  Just  to  think  that  you 
are  shivering  around  a  stove  that  only  keeps  you  warm  in 
spots,  while  I  at  the  same  time  am  enjoying  balmy  breezes 
freighted  with  the  perfume  of  orange-blossoms !  The  ther- 
mometer registers  seventy-nine  degrees  in  the  shade.  As 


YESTERDAY  AND   TO-DAY  IN  TEXAS. 


127 


I  look  out  on  the  streets,  I  see  the  inhabitants  dressed  in  sum- 
mer costume,  seeking  the  shady  side.  I  see  the  sun-burned 
descendant  of  the  lordly  Aztec  presiding  over  a  peripatetic 
candy  emporium  that  he  carries  in  front  of  himself  on  a 
wooden  tray,  while  he  shoos  the  flies  off  his  stock  with  a  paper 
fan.  I  see  a  swarthy  child  of  sunny  Italy  discoursing  music 
to  an  indolent  and  appreciative  audience,  while  an  African  ape 
sitting  on  his  shoulders  makes  faces  at  the  crowd.  Are  not 


YESTERDAY    AND    TO-DAY    IN    TEXAS. 


all  these  things  in  keeping  with  the  calm  serenity  and  quiet 
warmth  of  these  semi-tropical  surroundings  ?  I  regret  that 
I  did  not  bring  lighter  clothes.  My  ulster  was  a  useless 
encumbrance."  Then,  while  he  goes  on  to  tell  of  the  fig-tree 
in  the  back-yard,  and  the  bananas  in  the  next  lot,  a  cloud 
arises  in  the  north,  —  a  dark,  inky  cloud ;  then  a  sultry  calm 
succeeds  the  "balmy  breeze,"  and  a  sort  of  electric  or  sulphur- 
ous smell  takes  the  place  of  the  "perfume  of  orange-blossoms." 
There  is  a  rustling  in  the  tree-tops,  and  he  lays  down  his  pen 


128  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

to  go  and  look  for  his  coat.  When  he  comes  back,  he  looks 
out,  and  sees  the  Mexican  rushing  into  a  pawn-shop  to  pawn 
his  confectionery  establishment  for  money  to  buy  a  second- 
hand blanket.  He  sees  the  Italian,  with  his  organ  on  his 
shoulder,  and  his  monkey  by  the  ear,  hurrying  to  find  shelter ; 
while  clouds  of  dust,  and  a  thirty-miles-an-hour  wind,  fresh 
from  the  north-pole,  takes  the  place  of  the  "calm  serenity  and 
quiet  warmth  "  that  he  wrote  about.  Then  he  retires  inside 
his  ulster,  orders  a  fire  to  be  put  in  the  stove,  and  spends  the 
evening  in  amending  his  letter  to  his  mother-in-law,  and  in 
blaspheming  the  Texas  climate. 

The  northers  are  very  bracing  in  their  effects,  and  do  much 
to  purify  the  air,  and  carry  off  all  malarial  and  miasmatic  influ- 
ences. The  thermometer  falls  very  rapidly  during  a  norther, 
sometimes  forty  degrees  in  an  hour.  A  man  once  told  me 
that  in  Austin,  Tex.,  he  saw  the  thermometer  fall  three  feet 
in  two  seconds  —  off  a  nail. 

At  sundown  we  arrived  at  a  place  called  East  Bernard. 
East  Bernard  consists  of  a  store,  a  stable,  and  a  large  veranda 
with  two  small  rooms  attached  to  it.  The  old  man  who  owned 
the  place  gave  us  some  corn  for  our  horses,  and  told  us  that  he 
reckoned  we  could  stay  all  night  at  his  house. 

"  Come  over  and  sit  in  the  store  till  the  women-folks  git 
supper  ready,"  said  our  landlord. 

The  store  is  the  club-room  of  the  neighborhood.  A  planter 
never  buys  a  cow  from  another,  or  makes  a  trade,  without  going 
over  to  the  store,  there  to  perfect  the  transaction.  The  ratifi- 
cation of  the  contract  is  usually  connected  with  a  "  Here's  to 
you ! "  Local  usage  requires  that  this  formality  should  be 
gone  through  at  the  store.  The  young  men  who  live  within 
a  radius  of  several  miles  meet  here  in  the  evenings,  more  espe- 
cially on  Saturday  evening.  They  roost  around  in  uncomforta- 
ble attitudes  on  counters,  flour-barrels,  and  nail-kegs;  and  they 
discuss  local  matters  in  language  tinged  with  profanity,  and 
seasoned  with  the  appellations  of  the  Deity,  while  they  treat 
each  other  to  whiskey,  beer,  sardines,  canned  oysters,  and 
other  articles  indigenous  to  the  country  store. 

All  country  stores  are  strangely  alike.     No  genius  has  ever 


THE    COUNTRY  STORE. 


129 


invented  a  new  kind  of  country  store.  No  enterprising  young 
merchant  seems  to  have  had  the  hardihood  to  attempt  any  inno- 
vation on  the  established  style.  The  store  we  entered  varied  in 
no  important  particular  from  others  of  the  same  species, — dry- 
goods  on  one  side,  groceries  on  the  other,  and  beverages  in  the 
rear ;  while  saddles,  coils  of  rope,  cans  of  kerosene,  grindstones, 
axe-handles,  and  boxes  of  cheap  boots,  were  scattered  all  over 
the  place.  Boards  outside  the  door  were  covered  with  sten- 
cilled statements  regarding  the  goods  to  be  found  inside.  The 


HE    DIDN'T    BELIEVE    IN    A    FUTURE    STATE. 


inharmonious  grouping  of  the  articles  thus  advertised  reminded 
me  of  a  famous  Scotch  sign  of  the  last  century,  on  which  was 
inscribed  the  legend,  "Sold  Here  —  Bibles  and  Bacon!  Testa- 
ments and  Treacle  !  Godly  Books  and  Gimlets  !  " 

Our  storekeeper  was  also  postmaster.  The  post-office  de- 
partment was  on  the  left-hand  side,  close  to  the  entrance,  and 
apparently  consisted  of  a  weak-legged  desk,  covered  on  the 
back  with  patent  axle-grease  and  yeast-powder  advertisements, 
announcements  of  sheriffs'  sales,  and  biographies  of  strayed 

9 


130  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

horses  ;  of  an  ink-bottle,  a  used-up  piece  of  blotting-paper,  and 
a  cat  asleep  on  top  of  two  undelivered  postal-cards  and  a  stale 
religious  newspaper. 

We  found  five  or  six  men  of  the  cow-boy  class  in  the  store. 
I  have  used  the  word  "roost "  to  describe  the  manner  in  which 
these  people  assume  a  position  of  alleged  rest  in  a  store.  It 
expresses  their  position  more  closely  than  any  other  term  I 
could  use.  They  perch  on  the  highest  object  within  reach,  —  a 
box,  a  barrel,  or  counter,  —  and  draw  their  heels  up  on  a  level 
with  the  proper  sitting-down  part  of  their  bodies.  On  the 
ground,  around  a  camp-fire,  they  will  sit  in  this  same  position  for 
hours  at  a  time,  their  hands  clasped  in  front  of  their  knees,  and 
their  knees  clasped  around  their  ears. 

When  we  entered,  we  found  the  boys  listening  to  an  argu- 
ment between  little  Luke  Sneed  and  Tom  Quinn.  Luke  was 
one  of  those  human  outrages  vulgarly  called  a  "  Smart  Aleck." 
He  sneered  at  religion,  spoke  of  ministers  of  the  gospel  as 
"journeymen  soul-savers,"  and  was  ambitious  to  be  known  as  a 
sceptic.  He  "didn't  believe  nothing  unless  you  could  prove  it, 
you  know."  His  small  brain,  incapable  of  grasping  a  sublime 
idea  or  a  generous  thought,  employed  itself  in  questioning 
motives,  criticising  actions,  and  evolving  specious  arguments 
against  every  theory  or  statement  advanced  on  any  subject. 
He  is  one  of  a  class  that  I  have  heard  a  good  old  preacher  say 
often  tempted  him  "to  think  that  the  Creator  made  them  just 
to  fill  up  with."  Luke  was  denying  the  existence  of  a  fire-and- 
brimstone  hereafter,  and  his  opponent  was  weakening  under 
Luke's  repeated  requests  that  he  should  prove  his  assertions. 

"  Nobody  hain't  been  thar,  you  know,"  said  Luke  :  "  least- 
wise, we  hain't  no  proof  that  they  hev ;  and  it  stands  to  reason, 
that,  if  thar  was  sech  a  place,  the  owner  would  let  us  know 
something  about  it." 

"You  needn't  tell  me  thar  hain't  no  hell,"  said  long  Bill 
Staples :  "  you  can  bet  your  sweet  life  thar  is,  and  don't  you 
forgit  it.  It  has  been  proved  by  experiment." 

"  Experiment !     How  ? "  cried  several. 

"Well,  didn't  none  of  you  ever  hear  of  the  agreement  'tween 
old  Sam  Delaney  an'  Pete  White  ?  You  see,  it  was  jest  before 


PETE    WHITE'S   GHOST.  131 

the  war.  Pete,  he  was  an  infidel,  or  a  Darwin,  or  something, 
and  didn't  believe  in  nary  hereafter  nor  nothin'.  Old  Sam,  he 
was  a  Methody.  They  were  great  cronies,  Pete  and  him.  Both 
of  them  liked  their  tods ;  and  many  a  time  I've  seen  them  com- 
ing home  from  town  in  Sam's  old  buggy,  when  neither  of  them 
could  have  made  out  the  difference  between  a  Methody  camp- 
meetin'  and  a  Democratic  barbecue.  They  used  to  argufy  most 
powerful  on  religion  and  hell,  and  Henry  Clay,  and  things ; 
and  one  day  they  made  a  bargain,  as  I  have  heard  tell  of  many 
other  fools  doin', — a  solemn  compact,  they  call  it, — that  which- 
ever one  died  first  was  to  come  back,  if  such  a  thing  was  possi- 
ble, and  reveal  to  the  survivor,  by  some  token,  whether  thar 
was,  or  was  not,  a  hot  future  for  the  sinner.  Pretty  soon  the 
war  broke  out.  Sam  Delaney  was  too  old  to  go  ;  but  Pete  vol- 
unteered, and  in  a  year  he  was  colonel.  It's  a  wonder  he 
wasn't  killed  sooner,  either  with  whiskey  or  Yankee  bullets. 
He  wasn't  afraid  of  either.  In  a  fight  he  was  always  in  the 
front,  a  swearin'  and  rarin'  like  all  possest  ;  and  in  camp  he 
never  let  up  on  card-playin'  and  whiskey-drinkin'.  One  hot 
night  in  July,  old  man  Delaney  -went  to  sleep  outside  on  the 
gallery.  He  had  been  to  town  that  day  and  sold  his  cotton. 
You  see,  the  war  didn't  affect  us  much  down  this  way,  and 
people  attended  to  their  business  much  as  usual.  The  old  man 
had  histed  in  a  good  load  of  forty-rod  juice  that  day,  and  he 
was  so  tired  when  he  got  home  that  he  jest  threw  himself 
down  on  the  gallery  and  went  to  sleep  two  rows  at  a  time. 
Just  about  midnight  he  woke  up,  feelin'  a  sort  o'  chilliness 
creepin'  all  over  him.  Lookin'  out  by  the  fence,  he  saw  a  white 
object  standin'  at  the  gate.  It  gave  the  gate  a  push,  and 
glided  inside  without  makin'  a  particle  of  noise.  Sam  knew  at 
once,  as  he  told  us  afterwards,  that  it  was  the  spirit  of  Pete 
White  come  to  perform  his  part  of  the  agreement.  Then  he 
wished  he  never  had  made  any  such  fool  contract.  The  spirit, 
all  dressed  in  white,  glided  up  close  to  him,  stopped  a  minute, 
and,  though  he  could  not  see  it  very  well  in  the  dark,  seemed 
to  be  looking  kind  o'  mournfully  at  him.  It  moaned  sort  o' 
sorrowful,  and  moved  off  slowly  round  the  corner  of  the  house. 
Next  mornin'  the  old  man  looked  very  gloomy  and  solemn. 


132  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

He  told  his  family  at  breakfast  that  Pete  White  died  the  pre- 
vious night  at  twelve  o'clock.  They  laughed  at  him  ;  for  they 
knew  that  Col.  White  was  more  than  a  thousand  miles  away, 
fightin'  the  Yankees.  Sure  enough,  though,  when  we  got  the 
news  of  the  battle  of  Goose  Creek,  —  news  travelled  slow  in 
Texas  them  days  :  it  was  a  month  afterwards  'fore  we  heard  of 
it  through  Bill  Young,  who  was  home  on  a  furlough,  —  we 
learned  that  very  night  that  old  man  Delaney  saw  the  colonel's 
spirit  "  — 

"  The  colonel  got  killed,  I  reckon ;  but  what  does  that 
prove  ? "  sneered  little  Luke  Sneed. 

"  Don't  be  so  all-fired  premature,  young  man  :  let  me  finish 
my  story,"  said  Bill  Staples.  He  continued,  "That  very  night, 
as  was  proved  afterwards,  that  Delaney  saw  the  ghost,  and 
jest  at  twelve  o'clock,  Col.  White  was  a  settin'  in  his  tent  play- 
in'  cards  with  his  officers.  The  Yanks  were  throvvin'  an  occa- 
sional shell  into  camp.  The  way  that  they  remembered  the 
exact  time  afterwards  was,  that  the  guards  were  changed  at 
twelve  o'clock;  and,  just  as  the  guards  war  comin'  in  off  duty, 
the  captain,  who  was  playin'  with  Col.  White,  laid  down  four 
kings.  The  colonel  had  four  aces,  and  levied  on  the  whole  pot 
a  thousand  dollars,  I  heard  say.  Mighty  curious  coincident,  to 
say  the  least  of  it,  wasn't  it,  now?" 

"Well,"  said  Luke. 

"Well,"  replied  Bill :  "that's  all." 

"  But  wasn't  the  colonel  killed,  or  didn't  he  die  that  night  ?  " 
inquired  Luke. 

"  Hell,  no  !  "  said  Bill :  "  he's  livin'  yet,  down  in  DeWitt 
County,  as  hearty  as  a  buck." 

"  But  how  about  the  ghost  ?  " 

"Oh,  the  ghost!  I  don't  know  nothing  'bout  him,  of  my 
own  knowledge ;  but  the  boys  did  say  as  Jim  Carson's  old  white 
cow  broke  into  Delaney's  garden  and  chawed  over  most  of  his 
cabbage  patch,  the  night  he  saw  the  ghost." 

"  The  drinks  are  on  you,  Luke,"  said  the  crowd ;  and  Luke 
acquiesced,  and  "set  'em  up"  all  round. 


THE  MAN,   DIRKS. 


133 


CHAPTER    XI. 


SUPPER  we  sat  on  the  gallery,  and 
absorbed  a  great  deal  of  information 
about  cattle  and  cattle-men.  From 
what  was  said,  we  were  led  to  believe 
that  the  majority  of  the  people  in  the 
county  lived  by  stealing  cattle,  and 
the  balance  died  or  went  to  the  peni- 
tentiary by  the  same  means.  It  is 
very  easy  to  get  killed  in  Texas  :  steal 
a  yearling,  and  you  will  be  accommo- 
dated with  a  rope  and  a  live-oak  limb.  Contradict  a  native,  or 
dispute  the  accuracy  of  his  statement,  and  the  coroner's  jury 
will  return  the  verdict,  "  Died  from  the  effects  of  calling  Mr. 

a  liar  ! "     There  is  no  better  place  than  Texas  for  a  man 

who  wants  to  get  killed  or  hung ;  but  if  he  wants  to  get  hung 
in  a  legitimate  way,  by  a  regularly  ordained  sheriff,  Texas  is 
not  a  good  country  for  that  class  of  immigrant.  The  law  is  very 
exacting  as  to  the  qualifications  of  candidates  for  the  gallows. 
If  the  few  who  have  been  elected  are  to  be  believed,  they  are 
the  only  people  who  are  positively  certain  of  securing  a  home 
in  the  mansions  of  light. 

There  was  a  man  —  we  shall  call  him  Dirks  —  who  aspired 
after  a  higher  and  better  life  beyond  the  grave.  He  did  not 
care  to  trust  to  the  ordinary  means  of  securing  that  desidera- 
tum. He  wanted  to  be  sure  about  the  hereafter :  so  he  con- 
cluded to  get  hung.  He  knew  that  the  only  way  he  could  get 
hung  in  the  orthodox  manner,  and  have  the  sympathy  of  the 
citizens,  and  a  convoy  of  angels  to  carry  him  off  after  the  cer- 


'34 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


emony,  was  to  get  convicted  of  murder  in  the  first  degree. 
Without  any  provocation,  he  deliberately  destroyed  an  unoffend- 
ing man  with  a  shotgun.  He  made  no  effort  to  es.ape,  but 
hunted  up  the  sheriff,  and  begged  to  be  taken  into  custody, 
for  fear  he,  the  murderer,  might  change  his  mind,  and  not  want 
to  go  to  heaven  after  all ;  but  the  sheriff  said  he  knew  the 

murderer  to  be  a  gentleman 
who  would  not  run  away.  He 
so  earnestly  desired  to  go  to 
heaven,  where  he  could  see 
Bill  Longley,  Brown  Bowen, 
and  other  saints  who  had  gone 
before,  that  he  awaited  his 
trial  and  conviction  with  im- 
patience. The  fact  is,  that 
Dirks  was  a  little  out  of  his 
mind  anyhow.  The  day  for 

i-/irvn.o.  ,       _  . 

the  trial  arrived.    In  the  mean 

time  the  local  press  had  excited  much  sympathy  for  Dirks  by 
telling  what  a  kind-hearted  man  he  was,  how  he  killed  an  Indian 
in  1823,  what  a  perfect  gentleman  he  was,  and  all  that  sort  of 
thing.  As  there  was  no  bad  feeling  between  the  parties,  there 
could,  of  course,  be  no  malice ;  and,  where  there  was  no  malice 
aforethought,  there  could  be  no  murder.  Hence  it  was,  that, 
before  the  trial  came  off,  about  half  the  community  did  not 
really  believe  that  there  had  been  any  murder  committed  at 
all.  This  will  also  explain  why  there  was  so  much  sympathy 
for  Dirks.  In  fact,  some  thought  it  was  a  shame  to  try  him. 
In  order  to  gain  favor  with  the  public,  several  prominent  law- 
yers, in  spite  of  Dirks's  protest,  volunteered  to  defend  him. 
But  Dirks,  knowing  how  atrocious  the  murder  was,  had  no  fear 
of  being  acquitted.  He  still  yearned  for  a  blissful  future.  He 
would  say  to  himself,  while  thi  .king  over  the  matter,  "I  can't 
see  how  good  citizens,  who  have  regard  for  their  own  families 
and  for  the  welfare  of  the  public,  —  I  can't  see  how  it  is  possi- 
ble for  them  to  help  finding  me  guilty.  Then  the  sheriff  will 
hang  me  up ;  and  in  a  moment  more  I  will  be  in  heaven,  in  Bill 
Longley's  bosom." 


THE  ALLEGATA   A19D   THE  PR  OB  AT  A.  135 

He  was  sadly  disappointed,  however.  He  reckoned  without 
his  lawyers.  When  the  trial  came  off,  they  showed  that  Dirks 
never  .had  any  ill  feeling  against  the  deceased,  and  it  was  there- 
fore impossible  for  him  to  have  killed  him  with  malice  afore- 
thought. They  showed,  too,  that  the  deceased  was  not  killed 
with  malice  aforethought,  but  with  a  shotgun,  which  made  a 
fatal  variance  between  the  allegata  and  the  probata ;  but  the 
judge  decided  otherwise,  overruling  the  motion  to  quash  the 
indictment  on  this  ground. 

"Now,"  thought  Dirks,  "I  reckon  I'm  safe  for  heaven."  But 
his  lawyers  cross-examined  and  bulldozed  the  witnesses  for  the 
State,  until  it  appeared  as  plain  as  day  that  the  deceased  shot 
himself  accidentally.  Dirks's  heart  sank  within  him.  His 
worst  fears  were  realized.  And  the  jury  did  acquit  him  with- 
out leaving  the  jury-box.  Dirks  was  discharged  from  custody, 
and  that  night  he  was  serenaded.  His  lawyers  were  thanked 
by  hundreds  of  citizens  with  tears  in  their  eyes.  The  only 
sad  man  was  Dirks  himself.  He  went  home,  and  brooded  over 
his  hard  luck  for  a  day  or  two.  Then  he  loaded  up  his  old  duck- 
gun,  and  sauntered  down  the  road.  He  met  a  country  physi- 
cian of  his  acquaintance ;  and,  before  the  doctor  had  time  to 
say,  "  Howdy,  Dirks  !  "  he 
turned  the  old  muzzle-loader 
loose,  and  killed  the  doctor. 
Dirks  gave  himself  up  cheer- 
fully. Court  was  in  session, 
and  the  case  was  tried  at 
once.  He  would  not  have 
any  lawyers,  but  the  judge 
appointed  two  to  defend  him. 
Witnesses  were  produced  by 
the  counsel  for  the  defence, 
who  proved  that  there  was  found  on  the  doctor's  person  a 
deadly  weapon  of  peculiar  and  puzzling  construction  ;  and  two 
of  the  witnesses  testified  that  they  heard  the  doctor  say  to  Dirks, 
some  four  weeks  before  the  murder,  "  Whenever  you  get  sick, 
•call  on  me,  and  I  will  straighten  you  out."  This,  the  lawyers 
agreed,  could  only  bear  one  construction  :  it  was  evidently  a 


136 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


threat.  They  claimed  that  it  could  be  construed  in  no  other 
way :  therefore  Dirks  was  justified  in  shooting  the  doctor  on 
sight.  The  jury  took  the  same  view  of  it,  and  Dirks  was  again 
acquitted.  He  was  disappointed,  but  not  cast  down.  He  had 
read  of  Robert  Bruce  being  encouraged  by  observing  the  per- 
severance of  a  spider  that  made  six  futile  attempts  to  swing 
from  one  rafter  to  another,  and,  trying  again,  succeeded  the 
seventh  time.  He  tried  again.  He  killed  a  hackman  with  a 
knife.  He  was  determined  not  to  be  acquitted  again  :  so  he 
hired  two  young  lawyers  to  defend  him.  Neither  of  the  law- 
yers had  ever  had  a  case  before,  and  they  did  not  look  as  if 

^ they  knew  any  thing  anyhow.     They 

had  the  case  continued.  Next  term 
they  made  out  affidavits  showing  ab- 
sence of  material  witnesses,  and  had 
it  continued  again.  When  the  case 
came  up,  they  got  a  change  of  venue. 
Then  it  was  continued  once  more 
because  one  of  the  lawyers  was  con- 
fined to  his  room,  nursing  a  black 
eye.  This  exasperated  Dirks  very 
much,  but  he  could  not  help  him- 
self. At  last  the  case  was  tried  ;  and 
thirteen  credible  witnesses  swore, 
that,  at  the  time  the  murder  was 
committed,  Dirks  was  forty  -  five 

miles  away,  engaged  in  reading  Baxter's  "Saints'  Rest."  He 
was  again,  in  the  most  inhospitable  manner,  turned  out  of  jail, 
—  acquitted. 

He  went  and  bought  five  dollars'  worth  of  strychnine,  carried 
it  home,  and  gave  it  to  his  cook.  The  cook  was  prompt  in 
dying,  and  Dirks  was  arrested.  The  druggist  proved  that 
Dirks  bought  the  poison.  The  cook's  nephew  swore  that  he 
saw  the  prisoner  put  it  in  the  soup.  The  defence  proved  by 
experts  that  five  cents'  worth  of  strychnine  would  have  killed 
the  cook  dead  enough  for  all  practical  purposes.  The  prisoner 
used  five  dollars'  worth  :  therefore  the  jury  said  he  was  insane. 
Once  more  he  was  cast  out  on  a  cold  and  unfeeling  world. 


A   DEFECTIVE  INDICTMENT. 


137 


He  kept  on  reading  about  the  pearly  gates  of  the  New  Jeru- 
salem, how  there  was  no  sickness  there  (Dirks  suffered  from 
rheumatism) ;  but  Bill  Longley  and  all  the  other  angels  were 
flying  about,  with  harps  and  six-shooters  in  their  hands :  so  he 
yearned  more  than  ever  to  fly  away,  and  be  at  rest.  He  could 
get  hung  at  any  time  by  stealing  a  ten-dollar  cow-pony :  but  he 
had  noticed  that  those  fellows  who  were  strung  up  by  a  mob 
died  without  hope  ;  that  it  was  only  the  murderer  who  was  hung 
according  to  law  who  was  certain  of  a  "  home  over  there." 

He  resolved  to  fix  it  so  that  there  would  be  no  mistake  next 
time.  He  bribed  a  man  to  petition  to  have  him  put  in  the  luna- 
tic-asylum as  of  unsound  mind.  The  county  court  appointed  a 
jury,  and  Dirks  was  brought  before  it.  Of  course  they  decided 
that  he  was  perfectly  sane,  and  he  was  released  from  custody. 
Dirks  was  delighted :  he  chuckled  all  over.  "  Next  time  the 
lawyers  would  have  proved  I  was  not  responsible,  being  of  un- 
sound mind  ;  but,  now  that  I  have  been  officially  declared  all 
right,  they  can't  save  my  neck." 

He  went  home,  and  loaded  up  his  shotgun,  and  put  it  in  a  cor- 
ner. Then  he  cogitated  long 
and  profoundly.  "  To  get  my- 
self convicted,"  he  said  to 
himself,  "  I'll  have  to  murder 
some  man  whom  everybody 
loves,  admires,  venerates,  — 
some  man  whose  death  will 
create  an  aching  void  in  soci- 
ety for  the  next  century." 

Just   then    a  young   man, 
with  a  lead-pencil  and  a  smile, 
came  in,  and  said,  "  I  want  to 
interview  you,  Col.  Dirks,  about " —  when  Dirks  reached  out, 
and  blew  him  into  fiddle-strings  with  his  shotgun. 

"  Dirks  has  had  another  misfortune,"  was  the  universal  com- 
ment ;  but  this  time,  by  some  inexplicable  combination  of  cir- 
cumstances, he  was  convicted  of  murder  in  the  first  degree. 
When  the  verdict  was  announced,  he  shook  hands  with  each 
juryman,  and,  with  real  tears  of  gratitude  in  his  eyes,  thanked 


SHOOTING    REPORTER. 


138 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


them,  and  called  them  his  benefactors.  Then  he  gave  himself 
up  to  singing  "The  Sweet  By-and-By,"  "Shall  We  Gather 
at  the  River?"  and  hymns  of  that  class;  for  the  judge  had 
yielded  to  his  request  that  he  be  hung  inside  a  week  and  the 
jail-yard.  And  when  the  young  ladies  visited  him  in  jail,  and 
brought  him  flowers  every  day,  he  felt  happy ;  because  he  knew 

that  only  atrocious  murder- 
ers, who  were  sure  of  heaven, 
were  treated  in  that  way. 

The  happy  moment  had 
arrived.  The  instrument  of 
death  loomed  up  above  a 
"vast  sea  of  upturned 
faces,"  as  newspaper  re- 
porters put  it.  A  silence 
came  over  the  unnumbered 

IN    JAIL. 

multitude.  The  doomed 

man  ascended  the  scaffold,  leaning  on  the  arm  of  the  sheriff, 
and  accompanied  by  several  clergymen.  The  sheriff,  with  a 
husky  voice,  read  the  death-warrant,  after  which,  one  of  the 
condemned  man's  spiritual  advisers  offered  up  a  touching 
prayer.  The  sheriff  asked  the  doomed  man  if  he  wanted  to 
say  any  thing.  He  did.  It  was  just  like  all  the  last  speeches 
of  condemned  murderers,  as  reported  in  the  papers.  In  a  few 
moments  more  he  would  be  in  heaven,  he  said,  with  a  harp  in 
his  hand,  singing  hymns  of  triumph.  He  bade  the  crowd  fare- 
well. He  never  expected  to  see  them  any  more,  unless,  of 
course,  like  him,  they  would  be  smart  enough  to  secure  a  con- 
viction of  murder  in  the  first  degree.  The  sheriff  adjusted  the 
cap,  and  placed  his  hand  on  the  lever,  when  his  attention  was 
attracted  by  a  commotion  in  the  crowd.  A  man  on  horseback 
was  waving  a  prepaid  telegram  over  his  head. 

"  Hurrah  !  Pardon  from  the  governor !  Cut  the  ropes  !  " 
were  the  cries  that  reached  the  agonized  ears  of  Dirks  and 
the  sheriff.  "  Fooled  again  "  were  the  only  words  he  uttered, 
as  the  crowd  carried  him  in  triumph  to  a  saloon. 

He  left  Texas  as  soon  as  he  could.  He  said  he  wanted  to 
move  to  a  civilized  country,  where  some  consideration  was 


THE    TARANTULA.  139 

shown  a  poor  man  who  was  trying  to  get  to  heaven.  He 
changed  his  name  to  Muldoon,  went  to  Pennsylvania,  and  was 
one  of  the  Molly  Maguires  who  were  hung  there  some  years 
ago.  He  found  in  Pennsylvania  that  which  his  own  State  had 
so  persistently  refused  to  grant  him  in  spite  of  all  his  earnest 
efforts. 

Some  two  or  three  miles  from  East  Bernard,  we  came  to  a 
very  inviting  place  to  camp,  —  an  island  of  trees  in  a  sea  of 
prairie.  Although  it  was  yet  early,  not  more  than  ten  o'clock 
in  the  forenoon,  we  concluded  to  rest  there,  and  cook  dinner. 
On  a  piece  of  dead  wood  close  by  was  a  hairy-looking  object. 
Its  bbdy  was  about  the  size  of  a  walnut.  Its  legs,  eight  in 
number,  radiating  from  the  body,  were  also  covered  with  short 
hair,  or  spikes.  It  looked-  like  a  spider  from  Brobdingnag.  Its 
body  and  legs  would  cover  a  space  almost  as  large  as  the  palm 
of  a  man's  hand,  and  it  was  altogether  as  ugly-looking  an  in- 
sect as  I  had  ever  seen.  This  was  the  "  dreaded  tarantula,"  — 
an  insect  that  has  been  more  slandered  than  any  other  living 
thing ;  an  unobtrusive  spider  that  attends  to  its  own  business, 
and  seems  to  have  no  desire  to  push  itself  into  notice  ;  an  insect 
of  surprising  taste  and  ingenuity  in  the  matter  of  architecture 
and  household  adornment.  Its  nest  is  the  most  ingenious  of  all 
ingenious  things.  It  is  a  subterranean  abode,  about  the  size  of  a 
coffee-cup,  lined  with  some  material  as  fine  and  glossy  as  white 
satin.  At  the  surface  of  the  ground  is  a  small  opening,  into 
which  fits  a  door  made  of  sand  and  gravel  glued  together  with 
some  gummy  fluid,  and  lined  with  the  same  satin  material  as 
the  nest.  The  door  opens  and  shuts  on  hinges  made  of  many 
strands  of  a  silken  sort  of  thread. 

When  the  tarantula  goes  out  into  the  world,  closing  the  door, 
and  pocketing  the  key  to  his  night-latch,  the  sharpest  eye  could 
not  detect  the  nest  or  its  entrance,  for  the  outside  of  the  door 
is  formed  of  sand  and  gravel  that  looks  exactly  like  the  sur- 
rounding soil.  I  had  long  been  misled  regarding  the  habits  of 
the  tarantula.  I  had  labored  under  the  impression  that  it  was 
a  vagabond,  a  tramp  among  insects,  roaming  about  in  quest  of 
a  loose  trouser-leg  to  crawl  up,  when  the  fact  is,  that  it  has  a 
fixed  place  of  abode,  —  fixed,  so  to  speak,  in  the  highest  style 


140 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


of  insect  art.  The  tarantula  is  a  spider  of  strict  business 
habits,  not  speculative  or  rash  by  any  means,  but  rather  cau- 
tious and  conservative.  He  never  attacks  an  insect  larger 
than  himself,  unless  it  happens  to  be  dead.  When  the  sun 
goes  down,  he  saunters  out,  and  leisurely  proceeds  to  prey  on 
dissipated  ants  and  belated  tumble-bugs,  that  have  heedlessly 
wandered  from  the  paternal  domicile.  His  nocturnal  raids, 
and  the  fact  that  he  sleeps  all  day,  have  prejudiced  against  him 
those  hoary-headed  people  who  take  a  wicked  pleasure  in  cor- 


_    __     v,, 

.       ( T> 

/sA>, 

/,;£*  / 

I    •>'  •  C< 

,/? 


TARANTULA    (LIFE-SIZE). 

nering  their  sons  and  clerks,  and  hurling  busy-bee  and  early- 
worm  proverbs  at  them  before  breakfast.  But  the  prejudices 
of  these  old  fogies  influence  the  tarantula  but  little  ;  for  those 
who  know  him  best  —  the  frontier  Indian,  the  horse-thief,  and 
the  Mexican  raider — have  learned  to  appreciate  him,  and 
show  their  appreciation  of  his  wisdom  by  adopting  his  mode  of 
life,  and  considering  it  worthy  of  imitation.  The  most  perfect 
have  their  faults,  however ;  and  the  tarantula  is  no  exception. 
When  insulted  or  injured  in  any  way,  —  sat  down  upon,  for  in- 
stance,—  he  will  bite  the  first  soft  place  he  can  find,  exuding 


ASSOCIATION  OF  IDEAS.  141 

a  vicious  substance  said  to  be  as  fatal  as  the  poison  of  a  rattle- 
snake or  the  effects  of  frontier  whiskey.  I  think  this  is  an- 
other slander,  for  I  have  never  met  a  man  who  was  fatally 
bitten  by  a  tarantula.  "Tarantula-juice"  is  a  favorite  appella- 
tion in  Texas  for  the  worst  kind  of  whiskey,  and  probably  on 
the  principle  that  "  a  hair  of  the  dog,"  etc.,  whiskey  is  the  only 
antidote  successfully  used  in  cases  of  tarantula  bite.  I  have 
heard  it  stated,  —  I  give  the  statement  for  what  it  is  worth, 
probably  about  five  cents  on  the  dollar,  —  that  an  old  Indian 
who  lived  on  the  Nueces  loved  the  antidote  so  much,  that  he 
carried  around  a  tame  tarantula,  made  it  convenient  to  get 
bitten  close  to  a  grocery,  exhibited  the  tarantula  as  proof,  and 
howled  around  until  he  was  gratuitously  irrigated  with  whiskey 
by  the  humane  storekeeper. 

We  had  shot  some  quails  in  the  morning.  With  these  and 
coffee  and  corn-bread  for  dinner,  we  fared  sumptuously. 

What  peculiar  influences  on  the  memory  has  the  faculty  of 
smell !  How  powerful  in  recalling  the  time  and  circumstances 
with  which  it  was  first  associated  is  music  !  Strange  that  a 
familiar  smell  or  a  well-known  sound  should  call  up  from  some 
cobwebbed  corner  of  the  memory,  and  place  before  the  mind's 
eye,  scenes,  places,  persons,  or  circumstances  which  had  seemed 
entirely  swept  out  of  the  mental  storehouse,  but  which  at  one 
time  must  have  been  in  some  way  connected  with  the  cause  of 
the  phenomenon  !  This,  too,  without  any  effort  to  remember,  — 
an  involuntary  reminiscence  forced  into  notice.  Sometimes 
we  can  detect  the  connection  :  often  it  is  impossible  to  do  so. 
We  have  the  effect,  and  we  know  the  cause ;  but  why  that 
cause  should  produce  such  an  effect  is  the  mystery.  For  in- 
stance :  when  at  the  breakfast-table  I  break  an  egg  that  missed 
being  a  chicken  by,  say,  ten  days,  I  invariably  think  of  a  cer- 
tain geometrical  problem.  Why  a  stale  egg  should  suggest 
the  problem  of  describing  an  equilateral  triangle  on  a  given 
finite  straight  line,  transcends  my  power  of  mental  analyzation, 
as  they  say  in  Boston.  My  failure  to  understand  the  reason, 
merely  arises  from  being  unable  to  remember  the  circumstances 
attending  the  first  conjunction  in  my  mind.of  two  such  widely 
different  things  as  an  over-ripe  egg  and  a  problem.  Often, 


142  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

however,  we  can  in  such  cases  trace  out  the  connection.  There 
is  a  certain  tune,  —  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  is  the  identical  one 
that  caused  the  demise  of  the  ancient  cow,  —  whenever  I  hear  it 
played  on  a  piano,  there  arise  before  me  the  forms  of  three  old 
maids ;  and  the  prominent  features  of  several  months  spent  in 
their  saturnine  and  sedative  society  come  up  out  of  the  long 
ago,  and  flit,  panorama-like,  across  the  stretch  of  my  mental 
vision.  Each  funereal  note  resurrects  some  additional  incident 
of  the  bygone  time  when  this  tune  was  new  every  morning,  and 
renewed  every  evening. 

Many  years  ago,  and  several  thousand  miles  east  of  the  pres- 
ent geographical  position  of  these  presents,  I  boarded  with 
three  most  estimable  ladies,  who,  having  retired  trophyless 
from  the  hunting-grounds  of  matrimony,  and  located  on  the 
bleak  wastes  of  celibacy,  employed  all  their  time  and  energy  in 
pitying  their  mated  contemporaries,  collecting  money  for  the 
heathen,  and  teaching  music.  My  bedroom  was  situated  above 
the  room  in  which  the  most  sear  and  yellow-leafed  one  of  the 
trio  taught  the  five-finger  exercise  to  the  incipient  belles  of 
the  town  on  a  jingling  piano.  Snugly  ensconced  between  the 
sheets  on  a  winter's  morning,  enjoying  the  "balmy,"  and  "re- 
gardless of  the  voice  of  the  morning,"  I  would  be  awakened,  at 
what  Dick  Swiveller's  friend  would  call  "  an  everlastingly  early 
hour,"  by  the  blue-nosed  pupils  and  the  snappish  voice  of 
the  teacher.  The  maddening  monotony  of  the  exercises  of  the 
younger  pupils  was  varied  by  the  execution  of  the  cow-killing 
tune  by  the  more  advanced  pupils.  Shades  of  Orpheus  !  how 
I  anathematized  that  old  parlor  grand  !  How  much  quiet  pro- 
fanity that  rheumatic  instrument  caused,  I  shudder  to  think  of. 
Since  those  days  were,  a  decade  of  a  more  or  less  eventful  life 
has  intervened  ;  and  yet  a  peculiar  combination  of  sounds  has 
power  to  vivify  the  dead  past,  and  produce  a  train  of  thought 
that  carries  me  back  to  the  days  when  whiskers  were  a  dream, 
of  the  future,  and  individual  responsibility  but  a  fond  ambition. 
So  it  was  that  a  queer  association  of  ideas,  arising  out  of  the 
smell  of -the  broiling  quails,  as  the  doctor  cooked  them  on  a 
bright  wood  fire,  brought  to  my  mind  the  incidents  that  oc- 
curred many  years  ago,  and  which  I  shall  now  relate. 


ON  AN  IRISH  MOUNTAIN.  143 

On  a  bright  frosty  morning,  I  started  for  a  day's  coursing 
on  one  of  the  Antrim  Mountains,  on  the  north-east  coast  of 
Ireland.  I  was  accompanied  by  four  young  men,  six  grey- 
hounds, a  keeper,  two  barefooted  boys,  a  demijohn,  and  a  lunch- 
basket.  We  had  slept  the  night  before  in  a  rural  inn,  situated 
in  the  picturesque  valley  of  Glenshesk,  at  the  foot  of  a  moun- 
tain called  Knocklayde.  The  mountain  slopes  up  from  the 
water's  edge  to  a  height  of  two  thousand  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  sea.  After  walking  about  a  mile,  we  began  to  leave  the 
farms  behind  us,  and  to  climb  the  steep  side  of  the  heather-clad 
hill.  We  reached  the  top  about  eleven  o'clock,  having  coursed 
and  caught  three  hares  on  the  way  up. 

As  we  stood  on  a  level  plateau  on  the  summit  of  the  mountain, 
and  looked  around,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  views  that  it  was 
ever  my  good  fortune  to  see,  met  our  eyes.  Apparently  at  our 
feet,  two  thousand  feet  below,  the  sea,  calm  and  glistening  in 
the  bright  sunlight,  stretched  away  on  the  north  and  east  to  the 
far-off  horizon.  Behind  us  ranges  of  hills,  brown  with  heather 
in  the  foreground,  and  blue  in  the  distance,  towered  up,  their 
summits  concealed  in  the  ever-changing  and  moving  clouds  ; 
to  the  left,  the  bold  and  rugged  coast-line,  with  its  adamantine 
breastwork  of  lime  and  basalt ;  over  there,  the  Giant's  Cause- 
way ;  and  beyond,  the  bleak  hills  of  Donegal ;  to  the  right, 
across  the  channel,  the  Highlands  of  "Caledonia,  stern  and 
wild ; "  all  around  us,  the  home  of  poetic  legend,  fairy-tale, 
and  heroic  romance, — the  scene  of  fierce  conflicts  and  bloody 
battles  in  the  feudal  times,  and  of  wild  political  excitement  in 
later  days. 

While  we  sat  drinking  in  the  beauties  of  our  surroundings 
and  the  contents  of  the  demijohn,  the  old  keeper  entertained 
us  with  tales  of  the  heroic  age,  made  sworn  statements  regard- 
ing his  personal  acquaintance  with  a  banshee,  and  gave  us  short 
biographical  sketches  of  all  the  prominent  families  who  had 
lived  in  the  north  of  Ireland  from  the  fourteenth  century  down 
to  date,  besides  confiding  to  us  a  personal  grievance  connected 
with  the  bewitching  of  his  favorite  setter  by  his  mother-in-law, 
who  possessed  the  evil  eye. 

Old  Tim,  as  he  was  called,  was  an  extraordinary  character. 


144 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


Wind  him  up  with  whiskey,  and  he  would  run  for  twenty-four 
hours  without  stopping,  grinding  out  fairy-tales,  marvellous  lies, 
and  ghostly  legends,  by  the  rod.  From  where  we  stood,  we  could 
see,  as  he  pointed  them  out  to  us,  the  ruins  of  one  of  the  old 
round  towers  built  by  the  ancient  Druids,  and  still  haunted  by 
the  restless  souls  of  the  fire-worshippers,  as  Tim  affirmed ;  the 
shattered  walls  of  the  monastery  of  Bona  Margy,  where  rests 
all  that  is  mortal  of  the  Lords  of  the  Isles,  and  their  descend- 
ants the  Earls  of  An- 
trim ;  the  site  of  the 
castle  on  the  island 
of  Rathlin,  where 
Robert  Bruce  ref- 
uged, haunted  ;  the 
cairn  built  on  the 
spot  where  the  great 
McQuillan  murdered 
the  equally  terrific 
McDonnell,  haunted 
by  both  parties. 
Ghostly  stories  and 
stupendous  lies  were 
told  by  Tim  about  all 
these  places  and  per- 
sons, especially  about 
these  Earls  of  An- 
trim, who,  we  must 
conclude,  were  a  bad 
lot,  and  very  restless 
in  their  graves.  One  of  these  old  chiefs,  —  now  in  the  haunting 
business  some  two  hundred  years,  —  when  he  was  alive,  stole 
all  the  cattle  belonging  to  a  Neighboring  Chief,  sold  them,  and, 
with  the  money  thus  obtained,  hired  a  band  of  foreign  minions 
to  assassinate  the  Neighboring  Chief  in  his  bed,  and  burn  up 
his  castle.  They  earned  their  money  ;  and  the  spirit  of  the 
Neighboring  Chief,  with  a  retinue  of  bovine  ghosts  in  attend- 
ance, to  this  day  haunts  the  spot  where  his  castle  formerly 
stood.  The  old  Earl  lived  many  years  after  this  murder ;  but 


TIM    THE    GAMEKEEPER. 


THE    WHITE  HARE.  145 

his  sleep  was  broken,  and  it  was  noticed  that  he  seemed  to 
suffer  from  terrible  mental  trouble,  besides  being  afflicted  with 
evident  remorse  of  conscience  and  the  barber's  itch.  One  day, 
as  he  was  coursing  on  this  very  mountain  side,  his  dogs  started 
a  white  hare.  It  is  well  known,  that  the  sight  of  a  white  hare 
always  precedes  an  immediate  and  violent  death  to  the  party 
seeing  it.  -  The  Earl  did  not  believe  these  omens  and  warnings, 
and  he  encouraged  the  dogs  in  their  pursuit  of  the  hare.  In 
his  eagerness  to  follow  the  chase,  he  became  separated  from 
his  retainers  and  servants,  a  mist  came  down  on  the  mountain, 
and  he  was  lost.  He  did  not  know  the  path,  or  the  way  back 
to  the  castle.  Night  came  on,  and  he  took  shelter  in  a  deserted 
house.  "  You  see  the  tops  av  the  chimneys  way  down  there 
now,"  said  Tim.  "  It  was  wanst  a  fort  built  by  wan  av  the 
McQuillans,  —  a  divil  av  a  fellow,  who  used  to  take  whiskey  in 
his  tay,  and  raise  the  divil  when  he  had  a  mind,  I've  heerd 
tell." 

The  Earl  was  compelled  to  stay  there  all  night.  He  is  some- 
where around  there  yet ;  for  about  the  midnight  hour  there 
arose  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth  the  spirit  of  the  Neighbor- 
ing Chief  and  the  ghosts  of  the  retainers,  with  the  spirits  of  the 
stolen  cattle.  They  caught  the  Earl ;  and,  although  he  begged 
for  mercy,  they  heeded  not,  but  carved  him  into  small  pieces, 
and  boiled  him  in  an  immense  caldron  prepared  for  the  occasion. 
In  this  manner  died  the  ninth  Earl  of  Antrim,  as  we  were  as- 
sured by  Tim,  who,  according  to  his  own  statement,  "niver 
towld  a  thing  but  the  God's  truth  "  in  the  whole  course  of  his  life. 

While  being  entertained  by  narratives  of  this  ghostly  char- 
acter, a  mist  surrounded  us,  — a  mist  so  thick  that  we  could  not 
see  an  object  five  paces  distant.  Some  idea  can  be  formed  of 
the  density  of  the  mist,  when  we  were  able  to  cut  out  chunks 
of  it  with  our  hunting-knives,  and  use  it  to  dilute  the  too  strong 
whiskey  which  Tim  had  furnished.  This  may  be  hard  to  believe, 
but  it  is  as  true  as  any  other  part  of  this  narrative.  In  a  few 
minutes  the  mist,  or  cloud,  descended  below  us,  and  the  sun- 
light poured  down  once  more.  All  beneath  was  a  vast  ocean 
of  fleecy  clouds,  moving  around  in  an  aimless  turmoil.  We 
seemed  to  be  standing  on  a  small  island,  —  a  floating  island, 


146  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

lost  in  the  immensity  of  space.  There  was  a  weird  influence 
in  the  scene,  heightened  in  its  effects  on  us  by  the  tales  of  the 
ghost  and  goblin  that  Tim  was  disburdening  himself  of,  and  by 
the  sight  of  the  gigantic  shadow  of  the  aforesaid  Tim  cast  on 
the  surface  of  the  clouds  below  us.  It  was  the  shadow,  appar- 
ently, of  a  man  seventy-five  miles  long,  gnawing  at  a  piece  of 
cheese  about  the  size  of  Rhode  Island.  The  scene  was  so 
strange  and  beautiful  that  we  lingered  there  on  the  top  of  the 
mountain  until  the  sun  sank  so  low  that  our  shadows  were  on 
a  scale  of  about  five  miles  to  the  inch.  Regretting  that  the 
decline  of  day  and  of  the  contents  of  our  demijohn  compelled 
us  to  leave,  we  slowly  descended  the  mountain.  When  half 
way  down,  with  the  mist  thick  around  us,  suddenly,  from  a  peat- 
bank  at  our  feet,  there  started  a  white  hare.  Tim  crossed  him- 
self, and  called  on  us  to  "  howld  the  dogs,  an'  let  the  crature 
go,  or  it  will  be  bad  luck  that  will  come  to  some  av  us  this  day. 
It's  a  warnin',  God  be  good  to  us  !  "  Regardless  of  Tim's  warn- 
ing, we  plunged  into  the  mist,  slipping  two  of  the  dogs  in  pur- 
suit of  the  hare.  Hare  and  dogs  were  soon  out  of  sight.  In 
my  eagerness  to  get  a  good  view  of  the  strange  and  ominous 
animal,  I  ran  ahead  of  the  party.  Soon  I  found  myself  alone. 
I  stopped  to  listen.  The  voices  of  my  friends  sounded  strangely 
on  the  heights  above,  then  gradually  died  away.  I  could  hear 
nothing.  I  could  not  see  objects  farther  than  a  few  feet  from 
where  I  stood,  and  I  realized  that  I  was  lost  in  the  mists  of  the 
mountains.  I  continued  my  course  downward,  hoping  to  reach 
the  valley  and  some  farmhouse  before  nightfall.  Just  as  it  was 
becoming  too  dark  to  proceed  farther  with  safety,  on  account  of 
the  danger  of  falling  into  one  of  the  many  ravines,  I  stepped 
suddenly  right  up  against  a  house.  My  joy  at  sight  of  what  I 
at  first  supposed  to  be  a  farmhouse  was  short-lived  ;  for  I  soon 
discovered  that  the  building  was  an  ancient  ruin,  and  the  very 
one  described  by  Tim  in  the  morning  as  the  place  where  the 
haunted  Earl  of  Antrim  was  boiled  by  the  ghosts  of  his  mur- 
dered victims.  I  was  not  superstitious,  —  that  is,  not  very  ; 
yet  I  felt  a  little  queer  when  I  thought  of  the  white  hare,  and 
the  sudden  death  it  foreboded. 

The  mist  was  blowing  away,  but  the  night  was  chilly.     I 


IN    THE    RUINS    OF    AN     IRISH    CASTLE. 


LOST  IN  THE  MISTS   OF  THE  MOUNTAIN.      147 

decided  to  stay  there  for  a  few  hours  until  the  moon  would  rise. 
Climbing  over  a  stack  of  fallen  masonry,  I  stepped  down  into 
what  must  have  been  the  dining-room,  or  probably  the  kitchen, 
of  an  old-time  chief's  house.  The  floor  above  and  the  roof 
were  gone.  Loop-hole  windows  high  up  in  the  wall  were  half 
filled  with  dead  leaves  and  jackdaws'  nests.  Ivy  was  growing 
all  over  the  inside  of  the  eastern  wall.  An  immense  fireplace, 
with  a  large  hearthstone,  was  suggestive  of  the  hospitality  of 
the  days  of  yore,  and,  I  shuddered  to  think,  also  of  the  cooking 
of  the  body  of  the  murderous  old  earl.  I  lighted  a  fire  of  dead 
wood  in  the  middle  of  this  enclosure,  and  lay  down  beside  it  on 
the  grass-grown  floor.  Soon  I  was  asleep.  I  know  not  how 
long  I  slept ;  but  I  awoke  suddenly  with  a  cold  chill  along  my 
spine,  and  a  confused  idea  in  my  mind  that  I  had  been  dream- 
ing a  complicated  dream,  wherein  I  had  a  GraecO-Roman  wres- 
tling-match with  a  banshee,  and  a  game  of  seven-up  for  the 
cigars  with  the  ghost  of  Finn  McCool,  the  reputed  architect 
of  the  Giant's  Causeway.  The  mist  was  gone,  the  moon  was 
shining  brightly  in  my  face,  an  owl  was  hooting  on  a  broken 
cornice  above,  and  a  fragrant  smell  of  something  being  cooked 
—  and  which  I  recognized  as  broiled  quail  —  pervaded  the  at- 
mosphere. As  I  lay  there,  wondering  by  what  extraordinary 
means  broiled  quail  could  reach  that  deserted  spot,  in  the 
shadow  of  the  hearth,  as  my  eyes  got  accustomed  to  the  gloom, 
I  saw  the  great  wide  hearthstone  slowly  rise  up,  as  if  raised  by 
a  ghostly  jackscrew.  Then  it  turned  on  its  side,  and  sank  down 
in  the  earth  out  of  sight.  There  was  a  rumbling  sound,  and 
then  there  arose,  silently  and  slowly,  out  of  the  yawning  chasm, 
a  huge  copper  caldron.  At  sight  of  it  I  began  to  realize  how 
wicked  it  was  to  have  told  all  the  lies  I  did  when  I  was  a  boy, 
how  sinful  I  had  been  in  my  base-ball  days,  and  how  unprepared 
I  now  was  to  —  to  be  boiled.  The  hair  curdled  in  my  veins, 
and  Sunday-school  texts  flashed  before  my  eyes,  as  the  great 
copper  pot  was  noiselessly  placed  on  the  edge  of  the  hole. 
Then,  from  out  of  the  earth,  arose  the  head  and  shoulders  of  a 
grim  and  ghastly  bald-headed  man  ;  and 

"  Thrice  from  the  cavern's  darksome  womb 
His  groaning  voice  arose." 


148 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


It  might  have  been  the  ghost  of  the  Neighboring  Chief  before 
alluded  to,  but  I  did  not  wait  for  an  introduction.  I  broke  the 
tumultuous  silence  with  a  yell,  as  I  passed  out  of  the  doorway, 
and,  clearing  a  pile  of  rubbish  with  one  bound,  I  went  howling 
down  the  mountain,  and  never  stopped  until  I  came  to  the  sea 
and  to  a  fisherman's  hut,  where  I  rested  till  daybreak. 

They  were  arrested  by  the  revenue-officers  two  weeks  after- 
wards, the  copper  still-  confiscated,  and  three  of  the  moonshiners 
were  heavely  fined. 

I  have  never  smelled  broiled  quail  since,  that  I  do  not  think 
of  the  events  of  that  night,  and  what  a  mercy  it  was  that  I  did 
not  break  my  neck  as  I  rushed  down  the  mountain-side. 


EAGLE  LAKE.  149 


CHAPTER    XII. 


ARRIVED  at  a  place  called  Eagle  Lake 
late  at  night.  Eagle  Lake  is  a  small 
place,  probably  one  hundred  and  fifty  in- 
habitants. We  found  the  usual  corn- 
bread-and-coffee  sort  of  a  hotel,  the  same 
style  of  dilapidated  stable  for  our  horses,  and  apparently  the 
same  identical  hide-bottomed  chairs  that  are  to  be  found  in 
every  little  town  in  Texas.  But  we  were  tired  and  hungry, 
and  enjoyed  the  accommodations  and  refreshments  that  the 
place  afforded.  The  chairs  were  a  comfortable  change  from 
the  saddle,  and  the  coffee  was  more  palatable  than  the  warm 
water  we  found  on  the  prairie.  We  determined  to  stay  and 
rest  at  Eagle  Lake  for  a  few  days.  There  was  a  small  lake 
near  town,  and  the  fishing  was  said  to  be  good.  I  did  not 
indulge  in  the  "  solitary  vice,"  as  Byron  calls  it :  but  the  doc- 
tor wanted  to  catch  some  fish  ;  and  I  —  well,  I  wanted  to  lie  in 
the  shade,  and  say  smart  things  at  the  doctor's  expense. 

We  were  both  assigned  to  one  room.  It  was  about  eight 
feet  by  ten,  and  furnished  in  a  frugal  manner  with  one  bed,  one 
chair,  a  solitary  nail  to  hang  our  clothes  on,  and  a  tin  basin  on 
an  old  soap-box  in  the  corner.  The  tin  wash-basin  was  placed 
there  more  in  the  way  of  an  ornament,  and  as  a  concession  to 
fashion  in  the  matter  of  bedroom  decoration,  thgn  for  use  ;  for 
we  were  expected  to  wash  our  faces  in  the  morning  on  the 
front-gallery,  opening  on  the  street,  where,  on  a  shelf,  there 
was  another  tin  basin,  a  bucket  of  water,  and  a  piece  of  brown 
soap  in  an  old  sardine-box,  and  on  a  roller  hung  an  endless 


150 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


and  very  dirty  towel.  The  partition-walls  of  the  room  were 
constructed  of  pine  boards,  neither  painted,  papered,  nor  planed. 
The  boards  had  shrunk,  leaving  large  cracks ;  and  we  could 
hear  the  least  sound  in  the  next  room  as  plainly  as  if  there  had 
been  no  wall.  I  had  just  found  an  end  of  the  pillow  that  had 
neither  cobble-stones  nor  old  scrap  iron  in  it,  when  I  was 
startled  by  something  sitting  down  in  the  next  room.  It  sat 
down,  whatever  it  was,  with  such  enthusiasm  that  the  windows 
rattled,  and  the  dust  fell  from  the  ceiling  in  my  eyes.  Our 

landlord  was  a  very  enter- 
prising young  man.  He  told 
us  how.  he  had  come  to  Texas 
without  a  cent,  and  how  he 
had  prospered  until  he  now 
owned  the  hotel,  although 
there  was  a  heavy  mortgage 
on  it.  When  I  heard  the 
noise  at  first,  I  thought  that 
the  landlord  had  been  fooling 
with  the  mortgage,  —  trying 
to  lift  it  perhaps, — and  had 
dropped  it ;  but  in  a  moment 
I  learn  the  real  cause  of  the 
noise.  It  is  the  Jew  drum- 
mer, who  made  himself  so  ab- 
surd at  supper,  talking  about 
the  "gwality  off  dem  goots." 
He  occupies  the  next  room, 
and  he  has  just  come  in  and 
sat  down.  He  soliloquizes,  "  Mine  Gott !  vat  a  schmall  ped  ish 
dot !  "  Now  he  is  taking  off  his  boots,  and  we  can  hear  him 
swear.  The  doctor  expresses  pleasure  in  knowing  that  the 
Israelite  suffers  from  corns.  When  he  gets  his  boots  off, 
he  dumps  them  in  a  corner  with  force  enough  to  shake 
the  sign  off  the  front  of  the  house,  and,  going  to  the  door, 
shouts,  — 

"  Meester  Landlord !     Meester  Landlord  ! " 
"  Yes,  sir." 


THE    DRUMMER. 


THE  DRUMMER.  151 

"  Gan  I  haff  some  ink  ?  I  vant  to  write  a  leedle  pefore  I  go 
to  ped." 

He  gets  the  ink ;  and  he  scratches  and  scratches  for  half  an 
hour,  probably  telling  his  "  house  "  about  "  dot  gustomer  vat  did 
not  think  der  gwality  of  dose  goots  vas  so  mootch  as  dot  samble." 

Then  he  calls,  "  Meester  Landlord  !     Meester  Landlord  !  " 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  Haff  you  got  some  daily  bapers  ?  I  vant  to  read  a  leedle 
pefore  I  go  to  ped." 

The  landlord  brings  him  a  paper,  and  we  can  hear  him  fold 
it  and  smooth  it  out.  It  rustles  and  crackles  in  the  most  irri- 
tating manner.  It  takes  him  about  half  an  hour  to  finish  read- 
ing the  paper,  and  once  or  twice  he  groans  :  probably  he  is 
reading  of  the  lynching  of  a  drummer,  or  perhaps  he  is  perus- 
ing the  advertisement  of  a  rival  clothing-house. 

"  Meester  Landlord  !     Meester  Landlord  !  " 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  Giff  me  a  good  cigar :  I  vant  to  schmoke  a  leedle  pefore  I 
go  to  ped." 

Then  he  "  schmokes ; "  and  the  smoke  comes  through  the 
cracks,  and  fills  our  room.  The  doctor  and  I  are  both  fond  of 
cigars  when  we  smoke  them  ourselves,  but  we  dislike  the  taste 
of  second-hand  smoke.  About  the  time  the  smoke  becomes 
unbearable,  we  again  hear  the  clarion  voice  of  the  Drummer. 

"  Meester  Landlord  !     Meester  Landlord  !  " 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  I  vood  like  a  goople  off  towels  :  I  vant  to  vash  a  leedle 
pefore  I  go  to  ped." 

He  gets  water,  and  he  washes  his  face  ;  and  he  evidently 
gets  water  in  his  mouth,  and  soap  in  his  eyes.  Now  he  is  puff- 
ing and  blowing,  and  uttering  grunts  of  satisfaction,  as  he 
grooms  himself  with  the  "goople  of  towels."  We  hear  him 
taking  off  his  clothes,  and  we  think  now  surely  he  has  had  a 
"leedle  "  of  almost  every  thing  he  could  ask  for. 

"  Meester  Landlord  !  Meester  Landlord  !  Good-night !  I 
think  I  vill  go  to  bed,  and  schleep  a  leedle  now." 

The  clock  struck  two.  The  doctor  said  "Damit!"  and  we 
went  to  sleep. 


152  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

There  was  a  very  damaged  and  weather-beaten  man  at  the 
breakfast-table.  His  left  eye  was  concealed  by  a  green  shade, 
one  of  his  ears  and  two  of  his  fingers  were  gone,  and  his  right 
leg  had  been  amputated  at  the  knee.  Spliced  on  the  stump 
was  a  wooden  leg  with  an  iron  ring  on  the  end  of  it,  which, 
being  loose,  jingled  as  he  walked.  Four  of  his  front  teeth  were 
missing.  The  doctor  called  him  "The  Remnant,"  because 
there  was  so  much  of  him  disposed  of,  and  so  very  little  left. 
He  ate  a  great  deal,  but  was  very  abstemious  in  the  matter  of 
speech. 

The  Drummer  was  sitting  at  the  end  of  the  table,  and  was 
evidently  much  interested  in  the  Remnant,  and  seemed  de- 
termined to  learn  all  he  could  of  the  strange-looking  relic  who 
was  so  taciturn  and  hungry. 

"  Haff  you  got  some  farming  peesiness  hereapouts,  meester  ? " 
interrogated  the  Drummer. 

"No,"  growled  the  Remnant,  as  he  planted  a  large  Irish 
potato  in  the  yawning  chasm  under  his  nose. 

"  I  thought  you  looked  already  as  if  you  vas  in  the  farming 
or  stock  peesiness." 

"Yes?" 

"  Pooty  hard  spring  on  the  catties,  ain't  it  ? " 

"So  so." 

"  Dot  northers  vas  pooty  bad  for  the  scheeps,  don't  it  ? 
Haff  you  got  some  scheeps?" 

"  Not  a  blamed  hoof,"  replied  the  Remnant,  as  he  retired  a 
fresh  roll  at  one  effort. 

"You  haff  some  catties,  then  ?" 

"Oh,  yes  !  oodles  of  'em." 

"  Do  you  keep  dose  catties  on  the  range  ? " 

The  reticent  man  failed  to  reply  to  this,  as  he  was  engaged 
in  warehousing  a  bowl  of  clabber.  The  Drummer  was  knocked 
out  of  the  ring,  so  to  speak.  He  was  on  time,  however,  and 
opened  the  next  round  with, — 

"  Haff  you  "— 

His  query  was  cut  short  by  a  look  that  the  Remnant  gave 
him.  Then,  assuming  the  Drummer's  accent  and  peculiarities 
of  speech,  the  Remnant  said,  "  Landlord  !  Meester  Landlord  ! 


THE  REMNANT. 


153 


Off  you  lend  me  a  gun,  I  vants  to  shoot  a  leedle  pefore  I  go  to 
ped." 

Every  one  in  the  room  seemed  to  see  the  point  of  the  joke, 
and  enjoy  it,  which  was  evidence  that  the  Drummer's  nocturnal 
remarks  had  been  heard  all  over  the  house.  Muttering  some- 
thing about  going  down  town  to  see  a  "  gustomer,"  the  Drum- 


THE    REMNANT    AT    BREAKFAST. 


mer  retired.  After  he  had  left,  the  Remnant  said  nothing  until 
he  had  filed  away  three  battercakes,  a  cucumber,  and  a  saucer- 
ful  of  tomatoes.  Then,  having  eaten  until  his  jaws  had  become 
too  tired  to  masticate  more,  and  the  chicken-dish  looked  like 
the  front  yard  of  a  bone-factory,  he  gradually  thawed,  and  be- 
came talkative. 

"  You  see,"  said  he,  addressing  the  doctor,  "  I  don't  never 


154  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

give  no  satisfaction  to  them  sort  of  cross-questioners.  That 
double-jointed  Jew  wanted  to  know  all  about  my  business  ;  and, 
if  I  had  encouraged  him,  he  would  have  tried  to  get  the  bottom 
figures  on  my  pedigree,  and  maybe  wanted  to  know  if  my 
grandfather  wasn't  biassed  in  favor  of  raw  meat  as  a  regular 
article  of  diet." 

After  breakfast  we  talked  with  the  Remnant.  He  told  us 
that  he  had  a  ranch  a  short  distance  from  town,  where  his 
men  were  then  engaged  branding  calves  ;  that  he  was  going 
out  there  in  an  hour/and  that  if  we  desired  to  see  the  operation 
of  branding  cattle,  and  witness  some  of  the  peculiarities  of 
ranch-life,  he  would  be  pleased  to  have  us  accompany  him, 
and  spend  the  day  on  the  Ranch  Del  Rio.  We  accepted  his 
invitation,  and  rode  out  to  the  place  where  the  branding  was  in 
progress.  The  Remnant  was  a  rich  and  inexhaustible  mine, 
full  of  lore  of  horse  and  horned  cattle.  Looking  at  his  body, 
maimed,  gashed,  and  sawed  off,  as  it  was,  one  would  wonder 
how  he  retained  any  thing  inside  himself  ;  and  so  full  was  he 
of  bullet-holes,  and  so  cut  up  with  amputations,  the  wonder  is, 
that  even  his  accumulated  experience  did  not  leak  out  of  him, 
and  get  lost.  As  a  mine  of  knowledge  in  the  matter  of  cattle, 
he  was  a  bonanza,  out  of  which  a  curious  but  judicious  pro- 
spector could  dig  chunks  of  information  regarding  the  habits 
and  domestic  virtues  of  the  cow,  could  excavate  nuggets  of  pure 
truth  in  the  matter  of  steers,  and  scoop  out  shovelfuls  of  two- 
hundred-to-the-ton  facts  bearing  on  the  subject  of  roping  and 
branding. 

As  we  rode  along,  I  noticed  that  the  Remnant  looked  pale 
and  sad.  His  solitary  and  pensive  eye  rested  on  the  ground,  as 
if  it  expected  to  find  a  lost  dime.  I  asked  him  what  was  the 
matter. 

"  Oh,  nothing  !  except  I'm  just  getting  over  the  remedies," 
he  responded. 

"The  remedies  !  " 

"Yes,  the  remedies.  I  had  a  fever,  and  ray  friends  have 
been  trying  to  cure  it.  I  got  over  the  fever,  but  I'm  still  suffer- 
ing from  the  remedies.  My  liver  has  lost  all  public  spirit.  It 
refuses  to  act.  I  believe  the  mucous  membrane  of  my  epide- 


TRYING   THE  REMEDIES.  155 

gastrum  is  seriously  compromised,  and  I  fear  peritonitis  may 
ensue.  It  all  comes  from  the  remedies." 

I  may  remark  that  the  Remnant  was  much  given  to  using 
words  with  the  proper  use  of  which  he  was  not  familiar. 

"Well,  tell  us  all  about  it." 

"I  was  taken  with  a  violent  pain." 

"Where?" 

"Just  opposite  the  post-office,  day  before  yesterday  evening. 
I  felt  so  bad  I  wanted  to  die,  and  be  a  cheruphim.  It  felt  as  if 
my  spinal  column  was  a  ladder,  and  that  there  were  five  or  six 
pains  running  up  and  down  it.  Just  then  Smith  came  along,  and 
hit  me  on  the  shoulder  until  every  bone  in  my  body  groaned, 
and  asked  me  how  long  it  was  since  I  made  my  escape  from  the 
bone-yard.  He  told  me,  that,  when  I  smiled,  it  made  him  think 
of ''Black  Friday;'  and  he  asked  me  as  a  personal  favor  not  to 
do  so  again.  Then  he  tried  to  turn  it  off  by  saying  that  Robin- 
son Crusoe  had  a  black  Friday.  I  told  Smith  my  symptoms, 
after  he  had  sobered  down  ;  and  he  gave  me  some  good  advice. 
Says  he,  '  It's  all  right :  you've  got  it.  It  runs  in  families.  It's 
the  epizootic.  All  the  mules  in  town  had  it  last  year.  Go  right 
home,  bathe  your  feet  in  hot  water,  and  go  to  bed.' >: 

"  Well,  what  did  you  do  ?  I  want  to  know,  as  I  may  get  it 
myself,"  I  asked. 

"  I  went  home  in  a  hack,  and  described  my  symptoms  to  my 
wife's  mother.  She  is  a  first-rate  doctor,  —  knows  all  about 
herbs,  and  other  household  remedies." 

"  What  did  she  say  you  were  suffering  from  ? " 

"  She  didn't  make  any  regular  Diogenes  of  the  case ;  but  she 
merely  observed  that  it  was  a  singular  coincidence  that  I  always 
had  these  spells  whenever  there  was  firewood  to  be  chopped, 
and  that  they  passed  off  about  the  time  dinner  was  on  the  table. 
She  hinted,  that,  if  I  would  only  pass  off  too,  she  would  regard 
it  in  the  light  of  a  personal  favor." 

"  If  you  can  give  me  a  lucid  account  of  the  symptoms,  with- 
out bringing  in  your  family  pedigree,  I  would  feel  obliged.  Try 
now,  that's  a  good  fellow  !  " 

He  assented,  and  gave  me  the  following  sickening  details  :  — 

"  I  put  my  feet  in  hot  water,  and  boiled  them  until  they 


156 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


seemed  to  be  done ;  and  then  I  took  them  out.  My  wife  had 
heard  that  in  such  cases  it  was  a  good  remedy  to  rub  the  throat 
with  a  piece  of  fat  bacon  sprinkled  with  pepper." 

"  Did  you  rub  the  inside  of  your  throat  with  a  piece  of  fat 
bacon,  or  only  the  outside  ? "  I  queried. 

"  The  outside,  of  course.  How  could  I  rub  the  inside  with  a 
piece  of  fat  bacon,  when  I  had  to  gargle  it  with  salt  and  water, 
and  with  borax  and  alum,  every  five  minutes  ?  All  these  reme- 
dies were  bound  to  help,  one  way  or  another.  I  didn't  feel  the 
pain  in  my  back  at  all.  I  was  so  busy  vomiting  from  the  gargle, 
that  it  didn't  both- 
er me  in  the  least. 
As  I  was  begin- 
ning to  get  some 
good  from  the  re*m- 
edies,  just  to  enjoy 
myself,  a  neighbor, 
who  was  a  friend  of 
the  family,  came  in, 
and  said  there  was 
no  occasion  for  a 
man  dying  at  all,  if 
he  would  only  rub 
the  bridge  of  his 
nose  and  the  soles 
of  his  feet  with 
spirits  of  turpen- 
tine. I  did  not 
think  he  would  lie  about  such  a  trivial  matter,  and  I  did  as  he 
said.  I  started  out  with  a  pain  in  my  back ;  and,  by  the  use  of 
the  remedies,  in  less  than  an  hour  I  was  suffering  from  a  sore 
throat,  headache,  had  four  more  red-hot  pains  running  up  and 
down  my  spinal  column,  and  began  to  feel  symptoms  of  pre- 
liminary meningitis  of  the  pericardium.  Besides,  I  smelled  as 
if  I  had  been  freshly  painted.  I  had  been  plastered  —  mustard- 
plastered —  already.  My  throat  felt  as  if  there  was  a  never- 
ending  torchlight  procession  going  through  it.  Another  friend 
of  the  family  came  in,  and  said  there  was  no  hope  for  my  life 


SUFFERING    FROM    REMEDIES. 


HE    WANTED   TO  DIE  IN  PEACE.  157 

unless  a  towel  wrung  out  in  ice-water  was  put  around  my  neck. 
Somebody  else  had,  in  the  mean  time,  prescribed  castor-oil  and 
laudanum,  —  as  a  remedy  for  the  gargle,  I  suppose.  The  gargle 
was  given  to  relieve  me  from  the  effect  of  the  turpentine ;  and 
the  mustard-plaster  was  to  cure  some  Mustang  Liniment  that  I 
was  suffering  from.  I  had  a  pain  in  my  left  side,  but  I  didn't 
mention  it :  for,  if  I  had,  they  would  have  shaved  my  head,  and 
put  a  fly-blister  on  it ;  and,  to  cure  the  fly-blister,  some  friend 
might  have  worked  on  me  with  a  stomach-pump.  Some  other 
benefactor  would  have  given  me  a  tablespoonful  of  ipecac,  and 
sawed  off  my  wooden  leg.  You  see,  I  didn't  want  to  feel  too 
well  :  so  I  didn't  let  on  about  the  pain  in  my  side.  That's 
what  saved  me  from  the  remedies  I  didn't  take.  I  took  the 
castor-oil  and  the  laudanum." 

"  Well,  that  ought  to  have  afforded  you  some  relief,  sooner 
or  later." 

"I  went  to  sleep,"  resumed  the  relic;  "but,  just  before  I 
closed  my  eyes,  my  wife's  mother  greased  my  nose  with  a  piece 
of  mutton-tallow,  —  to  cure  the  castor-oil,  I  suppose,  —  remark- 
ing, with  her  usual  bland  smile,  that,  if  death  really  loved  a 
shining  mark,  that  nose  ought  to  draw  him.  Anyhow,  I  slept. 
I  dreamed  I  was  making  a  speech  from  under  a  cross-beam, 
from  which  dangled  garlands,  or  something  of  that  kind.  The 
sheriff  seemed  to  be  presiding  officer.  He  was  busy  fixing 
the  garland  about  my  neck,  and  I  was  saying  I  could  prove  an 
alibi,  when  I  awoke.  My  wife  was  taking  off  the  wet  towel. 
Mrs.  Brown  had  come  in  since  I  went  to  sleep,  and  told  them 
that  a  quilt  wrung  out  of  boiling  water  was  what  my  neck  really 
needed.  They  had  the  quilt  all  ready.  The  water  was  boiling 
hot.  All  I  said  was,  '  Mr.  Sheriff,  do  your  duty.  I  want  to 
die  before  another  remedy  gets  here.'" 

"  How  did  the  thing  end  ? "  I  inquired. 

"  Well,  it  was  pretty  tough  on  a  man  with  one  leg  in  the 
grave  already,  wasn't  it  ?  But  I  got  my  six-shooter  ;  and,  laying 
it  on  the  pillow,  I  told  them  I  was  going  to  die  in  peace.  So 
they  let  me  alone,  and  I  soon  got  well  enough  to  be  around ;  but 
I'm  suffering  yet." 

About  two  miles  from  town  he  suddenly  checked  his  horse, 


158  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

gazed  intently  on  the  ground,  and  said,  "  Some  fellow  has  lost 
his  saddle-horse  here  this  morning." 

There  was  no  advertisement  on  any  of  the  trees,  offering  a 
reward  for  a  lost  horse  ;  and,  as  there  was  no  lost  horse  in  sight, 
we  were  at  a  loss  to  understand  why,  if  a  horse  was  lost,  our 
friend  could  know  so  much  about  it. 

The  doctor  inquired,  "  How  do  you  know  that  a  horse  has 
been  lost  ? " 

"  I  see  his  tracks." 

"  Are  there  not  hundreds  of  horses  pasturing  on  the  prairies  ? 
and  how  do(  you  know  that  these  are  not  the  tracks  of  one  of 
them  ? " 

"  Because  he  is  shod,  and  the  horses  herding  on  the  prairie 
do  not  wear  shoes." 

"  How  do  you  know  that  he  is  a  saddle-horse,  and  lost  ? " 

"  I  see  a  rope-track  alongside  his  trail :  the  horse  has  a  sad- 
dle on,  and  the  rope  hangs  from  the  horn  of  the  saddle." 

"  But  why  may  he  not  be  a  horse  that  some  one  has  ridden 
over  this  way  this  morning  ?  and  why  do  you  insist  that  he  is 
lost  ? " 

"  Because,  if  a  man  had  been  on  his  back,  he  would  have  rid- 
den him  on  a  straight  course :  but  this  horse  has  moved  from 
side  to  side  of  the  road  as  he  strolled  along ;  and  that  is  a  plain 
sign  that  he  grazed  as  he  went,  and  that  he  had  no  rider." 

"  After  that,  it  would  not  surprise  me,"  said  the  doctor,  "  if 
you  were  to  tell  us  the  age  of  the  horse,  and  the  name  of  the 
owner." 

"  Well,  that  would  not  be  very  hard  to  do.  There  are  signs 
that  have  told  me  the  owner's  name  ;  and  there  are  other  signs, 
that,  if  I  had  time  to  examine,  would  tell  me  his  age.  I  know 
he  is  one  of  old  man  Pendegrast's  horses.  Pendegrast  has  a 
large  bunch  of  horses  down  in  the  bottom  ;  and  an  old  nigger 
down  there  does  all  his  shoeing,  and  shoes  no  other  horses 
except  his.  So  we  know  his  shoe-track,  just  the  same  as  we 
know  his  brand." 

After  this  conviction  on  circumstantial  evidence,  it  would 
not  have  seemed  to  us  extraordinary  if  the  Remnant  had  given 
us  his  opinion  of  the  life  and  character  of  our  great-grandmoth- 


"SJGJVS"    ON  THE  PRAIRIE.  159 

ers,  drawing  his  conclusions  from  an  examination  of  some  of 
our  physical  peculiarities. 

It  is  wonderful  how  expert  these  men  become  in  reading 
what  they  call  "  signs  "  on  the  prairie  or  in  the  woods.  No 
sign  escapes  their  practised  eye  :  all  manner  of  tracks,  trails, 
and  marks  are  to  them  data  from  which  to  draw  conclusions. 
The  peculiar  movement  of  an  animal  will  indicate  the  presence 
of  some  other  animal  in  the  neighborhood.  A  broken  limb  of 
a  tree,  a  crushed  weed,  the  ddbris  around  a  camp-fire,  the  flight 
of  a  buzzard,  and  other  such  signs,  are  to  the  cowboy  and  the 
frontiersman  what  the  signboards  and  advertisements  are  to 
the  people  who  live  in  cities. 

When  the  vigilant  policeman  sees  the  legend  "  First  Chance  " 
over  a  closed  front-door,  and  sees  a  man  with  a  market-basket 
on  his  arm  entering  by  a  side-door  in  search  of  a  clove  or  a 
parched  coffee-bean,  at  half-past  six  A.M.,  he  knows  that  it  is 
Sunday  morning,  and  that  the  man  is  thirsty. 

When  the  cowboy  sees  the  cattle,  the  deer,  and  the  wild-dove 
heading  in  a  certain  direction,  he  knows  to  a  certainty,  that,  by 
taking  the  same  course,  he  will  find  water.  So  these  volumes 
of  signs  that  nature  writes,  and  experience  teaches  to  man,  are 
read  daily  by  the  men  who  take  a  mustang  and  a  six-shooter 
into  partnership,  and  do  business  on  the  prairies  and  in  the 
forests  of  the  Far  West. 

The  finding  of  the  body  of  the  murdered  Robert  Trimble, 
near  San  Antonio,  and  the  conviction  of  his  murderer,'  Jose 
Cordova,  was  an  illustration  of  this.  Trimble  left  San  Antonio 
for  his  home  on  the  Rio  Frio,  driving  in  a  wagon  drawn  by  two 
mules.  The  mules,  without  the  wagon,  came  home.  Search 
was  made  for  Trimble.  The  probability  is,  that  his  body  would 
not  have  been  found  in  the  dense  chaparral,  but  that,  guided 
by  the  circling  flight  of  the  buzzards,  the  searchers  were  led  to 
the  place  where  they  found  the  dead  body.  The  murderer  was 
tracked  to  Mexico,  and  arrested  there ;  a  dent  in  the  tire  of  the 
wagon-wheel  enabling  the  parties  who  arrested  him  to  follow 
his  trail  all  the  way  to  Mexico,  and  being  the  only  clew  they 
had  to  guide  them.  As  the  Remnant  said,  "A  man's  tongue 
may  be  responsible  for  perjury,  but  signs  don't  lie." 


160  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Passing  through  two  gates,  we  found  ourselves  at  the  corral 
where  the  cattle  being  operated  on  were  confined.  All  the 
cows  and  calves  had  been  "rounded  up,"  and  the  calves  cut 
out  and  corralled.  The  pasture  was  fifteen  thousand  acres  in 
extent.  "  Rounding  up  "  is  a  term  used  to  denote  gathering 
cattle.  Cowboys  ride  around  a  large  area  of  country,  over 
which  cattle  are  scattered,  gradually  diminishing  the  size  of 
the  circle,  until  the  cattle  are  gathered  together  in  a  herd,  or, 
as  it  is  commonly  called,  a  bunch.  Sometimes  cattle  that  do 
not  belong  to  them  are  gathered  with  the  others.  These  they 
"cut  out."  "Cutting  out  "is  a  difficult  operation.  The  cow- 
boy rides  into  the  herd,  and,  with  shouts  and  elaborate  waving 
of  a  lasso  over  his  head,  drives  out  such  animals,  one  or  more 
at  a  time,  as  he  does  not  desire  to  retain  in  the  herd. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  branding-irons,  and  two  modes  of 
branding.  One  iron  is  of  the  shape  of  the  letter  or  letters 
forming  the  brand,  and,  being  heated,  is  stamped  on  the  ani- 
mal's side  or  hip,  and  held  there  until  it  burns  through  the 
hair,  and  almost  through  the  skin.  The  other,  called  a  running 
brand,  is  a  long  piece  of  iron  curved  at  the  end.  With  this  — 
the  curved  end  being  red-hot  —  the  person  branding  writes  the 
brand  much  after  the  free  and  fluent  style  in  which  shipping- 
clerks  mark  boxes.  Some  brands  are  a  single  letter ;  some, 
two  or  more  letters ;  others,  monograms  ;  the  majority,  hiero- 
glyphics, unmeaning  and  untranslatable  to  a  stranger,  but  plain 
to  the  cowboy,  whose  literary  attainments  very  often  extend 
only  to  a  knowledge  of  all  the  brands  of  the  county  he  lives  in. 
Some  men  use  immense  brands,  covering  the  whole  side  of  the 
animal.  We  saw  "  Hell  "  in  eighteen-inch  letters  on  the  sides 
of  some  cattle  in  Western  Texas. 

Samuel  Johnson  branded  his  Christian  name  on  his  cattle, 
beginning  at  the  back  of  the  ear,  and  ending  at  the  tail ;  and 
in  some  cases,  when  there  was  not  room  enough  on  a  poor 
little  calf,  he  would  brand  as  much  on  one  side  as  the  calf-skin 
would  hold,  and  then  "carry  forwards,"  and  brand  the  rest  of 
the  name  on  the  other  side,  connecting  with  a  hyphen  on  the 
tail. 

The  most  common  mode  of   branding  is  conducted  in   the 


EAR-MARKS.  161 

following  manner :  a  vaquero  on  horseback,  with  a  lasso  in  his 
hand,  rides  up  to  a  herd,  starts  a  cow  to  run,  and,  as  she  runs, 
throws  a  lasso  around  one  of  her  legs ;  then,  tightening  it,  he 
rides  around  her,  entangling  her  legs  in  the  rope,  when,  by  a 
jerk,  the  helpless  animal  is  thrown  down.  One  man  sits  on 
her  head,  while  another  applies  the  hot  branding-iron.  After 
all  this  trouble  taken  by  man  with  a  view  to  improve  and  or- 
nament the  cow,  the  ungrateful  brute  fails  to  show  any  appre- 
ciation of  the  kindness,  and  even  groans  and  kicks  when  the 
artist  applies  the  iron.  So  dissatisfied  does  she  seem,  that  one 
would  almost  be  compelled  to  believe  that  she  did  not  care  to 
receive  and  circulate  the  English  alphabet.  There  never  is 
much  enterprise  about  a  cow,  anyhow,  except  when  she  gets 
into  the  front-garden  at  night. 

The  other  and  less  common  mode  of  branding  is  to  drive 
the  animals  into  a  narrow  passage,  just  wide  enough  for  them 
to  squeeze  through ;  and,  while  they  are  in  this  tight  place,  they 
are  cauterized. 

All  brands  and  ear-marks  are  required  by  law  to  be  recorded 
in  the  county-clerk's  office  in  the  county  in  which  the  cattle 
run.  The  ear-marks  are  made  by  cutting  slits  in  the  ears, 
cutting  bits,  or  cropping  or  slicing  pieces  off  them  ;  and  it  is 
wonderful  how  many  ear-marks  may  be  made  by  peculiar  com- 
binations of  "slits,"  "bits,"  and  "crops."  Hardly  any  two 
persons  in  Texas  use  the  same  ear-mark. 

The  Remnant  pointed  out  and  explained  all  that  was  of 
interest.  We  learned  that  the  brand,  if  burned  to  a  sufficient 
depth,  will  last,  and  remain  legible,  as  long  as  the  animal  lives, 
and  will  grow  with  its  growth  ;  but,  if  not  burned  deep  enough, 
it  will  be  plain  only  until  the  animal  sheds  its  hair  in  the  spring. 
A  friend  of  mine,  Major  Johnson,  learned  this  shortly  after  he 
came  to  Texas.  The  way  he  acquired  the  knowledge  was  this : 
he  bought  a  few  cows  and  calves,  and  employed  a  neighbor  to 
brand  them  for  him.  The  neighbor  put  the  major's  brand  on 
them  in  a  very  satisfactory  manner.  It  showed  as  plainly  as 
a  grease-spot  on  a  dress-coat,  but  it  was  not  nearly  of  such  a 
permanent  character.  It  lasted  until  the  next  spring,  when 
the  new  coat  of  hair  began  to  come  out.  The  honest  neighbor 


l62 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


watched  the  brands  as  they  gradually  faded  away;  and,  when 
they  were  no  longer  visible*he  heated  his  own  irons  ;  and  about 
that  time  there  was  —  as  the  market  reports  say  —  "consider- 
able operations  in  live-stock,  several  lots  changing  hands  at 
merely  nominal  values."  The  major's  cattle  gradually  disap- 
peared, while  the  horny-handed  neighbor's  herd  increased  and 
multiplied. 

The  Remnant  took  us  to  another  corral,  to  show  us  some 
four-year-old  steers  that  he  had  just  bought.  Although 
these  had  two  or  three  brands  and  counter-brands  of  former 
owners  on  them,  still  our  friend  had  to  further  ornament 
them.  The  animals  were  already  so  covered  with  letters  and 
figures  that  he  had  to  put  his  on  the  edges,  like  marginal 
notes. 

These  grown  animals  are  often  difficult  to  throw  down,  and 
not  unfrequently  after  being  branded  they  become  dangerous. 

The  doctor  found  this  out 
without  the  aid  of  our  guide 
and  instructor. 

One  of  the  largest  steers, 
after  being  branded,  was 
rushing  out  of  the  pen.  The 
doctor  was  entering  by  the 
way  it  was  retiring.  He 
thought  he  heard  the  men 
shout  to  him  to  stop  the 
steer.  Throwing  his  arms 
up,  and  spreading  his  legs 
apart,  he  shouted,  "  Whoa  ! 
Wheesh  !  "  The  steer  pro- 
ceeded until  it  arrived  at 

where  the  doctor  stood,  apparently  as  if  it  didn't  know  he  was 
there.  Then  there  was  a  lowering  of  horns,  an  uprising  of 
tail,  and  the  next  moment  the  doctor  was  sitting  on  the  roof 
of  a  shed,  looking  down  on  us  with  a  bewildered  and  pained 
expression  in  his  eye ;  while  the  steer  was  streaking  across  the 
prairie,  his  head  high  in  the  air,  and  one  of  the  doctor's  coat- 
tails  on  his  horns. 


THE    DOCTOR    "  ROUNDED    UP.' 


EXTENT  OF  TEXAS   CATTLE  BUSINESS. 


163 


CHAPTER    XIII. 


WE  read  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  head  of 
cattle  being  driven  ev- 
f;  ery  year  from  Texas  to 
the  Northern  markets, 
and  when  we  are  as- 
sured that  in  1870  as 
many  as  five  hundred 
and  sixty  thousand 
were  driven  on  foot 
to  Colorado,  Wyo- 
ming, and  Kansas,  besides  thousands  shipped  by  steamer  to 
New  Orleans  and  elsewhere,  we  are  surprised  to  learn  that 
this  immense  drain  on  the  herds  of  Texas  does  not  perceptibly 
decrease  the  number  of  cattle  in  the  State.  When  we  visit  the 
great  ranches  of  Western  Texas,  we  are  no  longer  surprised, 
but  rather  wonder  that  the  United  States  holds  people  enough 
to  eat  and  use  all  the  cattle  we  see.  It  has  been  found,  from 
careful  examination  of  the  Census  Bureau  Reports,  that  to 
every  hundred  persons  in  the  United  States  there  is  required 
eighty  head  of  cattle,  and  that  this  requirement  has  not  varied 
one  per  cent  in  thirty  years.  Taking  this  as  a  basis  of  calcu- 
lation, we  find  that  the  Northern  and  Eastern  States  have 
less  than  the  requisite  number  of  cattle,  while  Texas  and 
other  Western  States  have  more  than  the  requisite  number ; 
and  it  is  to  these  States  that  the  East  looks  for  her  beef- 
supply. 


1 64  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Texas  had,  in  1870,  abomt  nine  hundred  cattle  to  every  one 
hundred  inhabitants. 

Many  prominent  stockmen  have  changed  the  mode  of  raising 
cattle  in  Texas.  Formerly  they  allowed  their  cattle  to  range  at 
will  over  the  broad  prairies,  only  rounding  them  up  once  a  year 
for  the  purpose  of  branding  the  calves,  and  cutting  out  the  beef 
steers  for  sale.  The  cattle  belonging  to  one  man  often  spread 
over  an  area  of  country  fifty  to  one  hundred  miles  square.  Now 
the  stockmen  are  building  fences,  enclosing  pastures,  and  giving 
much  more  attention  to  improving  the  breed  of  their  cattle  than 
formerly.  Many  pastures  of  from  fifty  thousand  to  one  hundred 
thousand  acres  are  to  be  found  in  Southern  and  Western  Texas. 

In  the  coast  counties  there  are  cattle-lords  whose  herds,  in 
number  and  value,  surpass  the  flocks  and  herds  of  the  great 
stockman  of  Uz.  Capt.  Richard  King  —  known  as  the  cattle- 
king  of  Texas  —  has,  at  the  Santa  Gertrude  ranch,  one  hun- 
dred thousand  head  of  cattle,  ten  thousand  horses,  seven  thou- 
sand sheep,  and  eight  thousand  goats.  Three  hundred  Mexican 
herders  and  vaqueros  attend  to  the  multifarious  duties  necessary 
to  the  management  of  these  vast  herds.  The  ride  around  the 
fence  of  the  Santa  Gertrude  ranch  is  sixty  miles  in  extent. 

Lieut.  Atwell,  who  recently  married  the  daughter  of  Capt. 
King,  was  presented  on  the  wedding-morning,  by  the  bride's 
father,  with  ten  thousand  head  of  cattle  and  horses.  Just 
imagine  the  visitors,  as  they  fingered  over  the  wedding-pres- 
ents, when  they  came  to  ten  thousand  head  of  cattle  among  the 
card-cases,  butter-knives,  and  napkin-rings  that  custom  requires 
should  be  presented  to  bride  and  bridegroom  by  their  friends ! 
and  think  of  how  embarrassed  Lieut.  Atwell  must  have  been 
when  he  had  ten  thousand  long-horned  cows,  frisky  calves,  and 
bellowing  steers  turned  over  to  him,  without  even  a  halter 
around  their  necks  to  hold  them  by !  Nobody  ever  gave  me 
ten  thousand  head  of  cattle,  but  I  can  remember  when  I  re- 
ceived an  old  cow  in  payment  of  a  bad  debt.  It  was  a  very  bad 
debt,  and  I  came  to  consider  it  a  very  bad  payment.  She  was 
a  thin  cow  ;  but  the  former  owner  said  she  was  better  than  she 
looked,  being  a  cross  between  the  Jersey  and  the  Durham. 
She  looked  as  if  she  might  have  been  a  cross  between  an  old 


"KEEP  YOUR    COW  OUT  OF  MY  SHRUBBERY:1    165 


hair-trunk  and  an  abandoned  hoopskirt.  I  kept  the  brute  three 
days  ;  and  no  one,  except,  perhaps,  Lieut.  Atwell,  could  ever  ap- 
preciate the  suffering  I  endured  in  that  time.  The  first  night 
she  broke  through  the  fence,  and  reduced  to  a  pulp  all  the 
underclothing  belonging  to  my  next-door  neighbor.  She  put 
her  horn  through  my  bath-tub,  and  ate  up  all  my  aunt's  gera- 
niums. I  had  expectations  from  my  aunt,  but  the  extent  of 
that  cow's  appetite  ruined  them.  She  —  the  cow  I  mean  —  was 
to  give  three  gallons  of  milk  a  day ;  but  she  seemed  to  be  short 
just  then,  and  never  had  that  amount  to  spare  while  we  kept 
her.  In  fact,  she  never 
produced  any  milk  worth 
speaking  of,  unless  it  was 
the  milk  of  human  kindness 
that  she  kicked  out  of  the 
hired  man.  The  second 
day  she  walked  into  the 
kitchen  and  upset  a  pan  of 
batter,  my  aunt's  nerves, 
and  a  tub  of  lard.  Then 
she  fell  down  a  well ;  and 
when  I  got  her  out,  at  a 
cost  of  five  dollars,  she  took 
the  colic,  whooping-cough, 
or  something,  and  kept  us 

awake  all  night.  Not  a  green  thing  was  left  in  my  garden. 
My  neighbor's  peach-trees,  and  the  rope  on  which  his  under- 
wear grew,  were  as  bare  of  fruit  as  a  single  tree,  and  he  did 
not  have  a  twig  of  shrubbery  left.  My  neighbor  came  over  to 
see  me,  and  said,  — 

"  Why  do  you  let  your  cow  into  my  garden  at  night  ?     Why 
don't  you  take  your  blamed  old  cow  in  after  dark  ? " 

"  And  why,  my  friend,"  said  I,  "  don't  you  take  your  blamed 
old  garden  in  after  dark  ?  " 

"  Now,  I  don't  desire  any  quarrel,  but  I  want  you  to  keep  your 
cow  out  of  my  shrubbery." 

"  And  I  want  you  to  keep  your  shrubbery  out  of  my  cow :  it 
spoils  the  taste  of  the  milk." 


•KEEP  YOUR  COW  OUT  OF  MY  SHRUBBERY." 


1 66  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Friends  separated  us  ;  but  ever  afterwards  there  was  a  cool- 
ness between  us,  and  my  neighbor's  wife  ceased  to  patronize  our 
house  when  she  wanted  to  borrow  a  cupful  of  yeast-powder. 

I  could  bear  the  cow  no  longer.  I  sacrificed  her  to  the  pay- 
ment of  a  bad  debt  I  owed  the  grocer  around  the  corner.  Now, 
if  one  old  cow  disorganized  my  domestic  economy,  and  destroyed 
the  amicable  relations  existing  between  my  neighbor  and  myself, 
what  must  Lieut.  Atwell  have  suffered  with  ten  thousand  cows  ? 
Think  of  the  ruin  and  desolation  of  his  garden  !  Imagine  how 
the  neighbors  over  the  way  must  have  suffered  !  I  would  ven- 
ture to  say,  that,  inside  of  two  weeks,  there  was  not  a  living 
soul  within  fifty  miles  who  had  a  shirt  to  his  back. 

But  this  is  a  digression.  There  is  a  man  near  Corpus  Christi 
who  has  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  acres  under  fence.  A 
lady,  Mrs.  Rabb,  near  the  same  place,  has  ninety  thousand  acres 
enclosed  by  a  plank  fence.  Many  such  ranches  could  be  referred 
to,  and  several  stockmen  could  be  named,  who  own  more  than 
one  hundred  thousand  head  of  cattle  and  horses. 

John  Timon  of  San  Patricio,  in  announcing  through  an  ad- 
vertisement his  purchase  of  certain  brands  of  cattle,  says,  — 

"  All  honest,  industrious,  poor  men  are  welcome  to  kill  an 
occasional  calf,  provided  they  do  not  waste  the  meat." 

Now,  who  says  that  Texas  is  not  a  good  place  for  the  honest, 
industrious,  poor  man  ? 

While  the  honest,  industrious,  poor  man  in  Texas  is  skinning 
the  cows  and  calves  of  John  Timon  and  others,  eating  the  meat, 
and  selling  the  hides  for  whiskey,  or  bartering  them  off  for  a 
ticket  to  the  bull-fight,  the  honest,  industrious,  poor  man  of 
Pennsylvania  is  offering  to  bind  himself  a  slave  for  years  in 
consideration  of  plain  food  and  necessary  clothing,  and  the 
assurance  of  burial  after  death.  Vide  the  following  petitions 
presented  by  a  number  of  colliers  to  a  capitalist  at  Scranton, 
Penn.,  some  time  ago  :  — 

"  We  will  bind  ourselves  to  be  your  slaves,  to  toil  early  and  late,  as  our 
strength  will  permit,  for  you  during  one  or  five  years,  and  never  will  ask  you 
for  one  cent  of  wages,  if  you  will  only  give  us  and  our  families  plain  and 
sufficient  food,  such  clothing  as  we  really  need,  houses  to  live  in,  doctor  and 
medicines  when  we  are  sick,  and  bury  us  when  we  die." 


CA  TTLE-KINGS.  1 6  7 

All  that  the  industrious  poor  man  has  to  do  in  Texas  is  to 
buy,  or  in  some  way  own,  a  few  cows,  using  them  as  an  excuse 
for  being  on  the  range.  Starting  with  these  as  a  nucleus,  he 
can  add  to  the  number  considerably,  provided  he  is  an  enter- 
prising man,  who,  in  an  absent-minded  way,  uses  his  own  brand 
by  mistake  on  his  neighbor's  calves,  or  on  the  mavericks  he 
may  find.  If  he  attends  strictly  to  business,  and  devotes  him- 
self to  honest  industry  in  this  way,  he  will  be  certain  to  rise  in 
the  world  —  it  may  be  through  the  instrumentality  of  a  rope, 
for  Texas  stockmen  do  not  like  this  kind  of  "  industrious  poor 
man."  If,  however,  he  is  smart  enough  to  blotch  a  brand,  and 
change  an  ear-mark,  he  is  usually  smart  enough  to  avoid  detec- 
tion, and  very  liable  to  get  rich. 

In  four  years  a  man  can  quadruple  his  capital  by  engaging  in 
the  cattle  business,  and  either  protecting  his  herd,  or  stealing 
when  he  is  stolen  from. 

Eighteen  years  ago  John  Hetson  was  scratching  a  living  out 
of  the  timber-lands  of  Tennessee.  Seeing  no  prospect  of  im- 
proving his  condition  by  staying  where  he  was,  he  sold  his  land, 
and  with  the  proceeds  bbught  sixty  cows,  and  brought  them  to 
Texas.  He  now  owns  fifty  thousand  acres  of  land  and  seventy 
thousand  head  of  cattle. 

A  Texas  paper,  speaking  of  M.  L.  B.  Harris,  says,  "He 
began  in  1856  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  head  of  cattle.  In 
1872  he  had  sixty  thousand  head  of  cattle  valued  at  three  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  and  land,  house,  etc.,  valued  at  thirty-five 
thousand  dollars,  or  a  gain  of,  say,  three  hundred  and  thirty 
thousand  dollars,  besides  what  it  cost  him  to  support  and  edu- 
cate a  family  of  eight  children." 

These  are  not  extreme  cases.  Many  do  as  well :  but  the 
man  who  is  not  industrious  in  the  cattle  business  will  be  as 
much  of  a  failure  as  he  would  be  in  any  other  business ;  and 
there  are  many  men  in  Texas  who  are  not  industrious. 

If  the  Northern  stockman,  who  has  to  feed  and  shelter  his 
cattle  during  the  winter,  working  hard  all  spring  and  summer 
to  raise  enough  feed  to  keep  them  alive  during  the  cold  months, 
can  make  money  in  raising  cattle,  how  much  more  can  the 
Texan,  who  vexes  himself  not  with  labor,  but  just  turns  his 


1 68  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

cattle  out  on  the  prairie,  where  they  get  grass  and  water  all  the 
year  round,  and  where  the  climate  is  so  mild  that  they  need  no 
shelter. 

Imagine  the  Vermont  farmer  getting  up  before  sunrise  on  a 
bleak  winter  morning.  See  him  go  shivering  out  to  the  barn 
to  shuck  corn,  slice  frozen  turnips,  and  break  the  ice  on  his 
watering-trough  with  an  axe.  Observe  how  blue  he  looks  as  he 
sees  the  pile  of  fodder,  that  he  labored  so  hard  to  raise  in  the 
other  end  of  the  year,  diminish  with  a  rapidity  that  makes  him 
think  there  will  not  be  enough  to  feed  his  stock  through  the 
winter.  Then  think  of  the  Texan,  on  the  same  day  of  the  year, 
as  he  gets  up  at  nine  o'clock,  and  strolls  around  the  house 
without  his  coat.  See  him  step  into  the  garden  and  get  a  rose 
for  his  button-hole,  while  his  wife  cooks  breakfast.  The  milch- 
cows  are  late  this  morning ;  they  have  not  come  up  from  the 
prairie,  where  they  have  been  all  night :  so  he  drinks  his  coffee 
without  milk,  and,  although  he  has  a  thousand  head  of  cattle  to 
attend  to,  he  "reckons"  that  they  can  take  care  of  themselves 
without  him,  and  he  goes  off  to  spend  the  day  pitching  horse- 
shoes, or  playing  sinful  games  for  the  drinks  at  the  nearest 
grocery.  He  does  not  go  to  labor  all  morning  in  the  barn. 
He  has  not  got  a  barn,  and  says  he  does  not  need  one.  He  does 
not  waste  an  hour,  and  a  piece  of  his  thumb,  in  slicing  frozen 
turnips,  because  he  has  not  any  turnips  to  slice.  "  Don't  need 
them,"  he  says;  "got  plenty  of  grass:  grass  is  good  enough 
for  Texas  cattle."  He  does  not  look  blue  :  he  looks  happy,  as 
he  sees  the  unlimited  stretch  of  prairie,  with  its  rich  carpet  of 
grass,  enough  in  sight  to  feed  ten  thousand  head  of  cattle 
through  the  winter,  and  suggestive  of  sleek  yearlings  and 
plump  cows  in  the  spring. 

In  March  or  in  February,  if  the  spring  is  an  early  one  and 
the  grass  abundant,  stockmen,  who  drive  to  Colorado,  Kansas, 
and  Wyoming,  round  up  their  cattle  on  the  range,  or  go  around 
the  country  buying  cattle  from  the  small  stock-raisers,  until 
they  get  the  number  required  to  make  up  a  herd.  These  are 
all  branded  with  what  is  called  the  road-brand,  —  usually  a  single 
letter,  and  only  hair-deep.  The  brand  is  used  only  for  cattle 
driven  out  of  the  State,  and  for  the  purpose  of  identifying  such 


THE    COWBOY. 


169 


animals  as  might  stray  out  of  the  herd  on  the  way.  From  two 
to  five  thousand  head  are  driven  in  a  herd.  Some  stockmen 
send  several  "  drives  "  yearly.  Accompanying  such  herd,  there 
are  from  twenty  to  thirty  cowboys,  sixty  or  seventy  horses,  and 
a  supply-wagon.  The  horses  are  hardy  mustangs,  called  cow- 
ponies.  They  are  trained  with  an  especial  view  to  driving 
cattle,  and  seem  to  take  an  extraordinary  pleasure  in  driving  a 
straying  cow  back  into  the  herd.  If  the  rider  will  leave  the 
matter  entirely  to  the  pony,  he  will  head  off  the  cow,  and  drive 
her  to  the  herd  as  straight 
as  a  cow  can  be  driven  any-  ( 

where,  keeping  close  to  her 
all  the  time  ;  and  yet,  with 
all  this  virtue,  there  is  an 
amount  of  accompanying 
vice.  As  soon  as  he  has 
turned  the  cow  over  to  the 
proper  authorities,  he  will  in 
all  probability  be  so  elated 
over  his  exploit,  that  he  will 
buck  his  rider  off  his  back, 
and  into  a  mud-hole  and  a 
state  of  protracted  profan- 

fry. 

From  Texas  the  owner  of 
a  herd  usually  goes  to  the 
terminal  end  of  the  drive  by 
rail.  The  cowboys  who  ac- 
company the  cattle  are  under  the  control  of  a  captain,  who  ap- 
points, from  the  men  under  his  charge,  officers  who  have  certain 
duties  to  perform,  and  who  enforce  discipline  in  the  ranks  when 
they  are  sober  enough  to  know  the  difference  between  discipline 
and  a  demijohn. 

The  cowboy  is  a  man  attached  to  a  gigantic  pair  of  spurs. 
He  inhabits  the  prairies  of  Texas,  and  is  successfully  raised  as 
far  north  as  the  thirtieth  degree  of  latitude.  He  is  in  season 
all  the  year  round,  and  is  generally  found  on  the  back  of  a  small 
mustang  pony,  "wild  and  savage  as  a  colt  of  the  Ukraine." 


1 70  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

This  fact  has  given  rise  to  a  widely  diffused  belief  that  the 
cowboy  cannot  walk ;  and  he  is  often  cited  as  an  instance  —  a 
stupendous  manifestation,  in  fact  —  of  the  wonderful  working 
of  Nature  to  adapt  her  creatures  to  the  circumstances  surround- 
ing them.  It  is  argued  that  once  the  cowboy  was  a  human 
being,  —  a  biped  with  the  ordinary  powers  of  locomotion,  —  but 
that  during  the  course  of  ages,  becoming  more  and  more 
attached  to  his  horse,  and  having  gradually  ceased  to  use  his 
legs,  these  important  adjuncts  have  been  incapacitated  for 
pedestrian  uses,  and  thus  the  cowboy  and  his  pony  have  devel- 
oped into  a  hybrid  union  of  man  and  horse,  —  an  inferior  kind 
of  Centaur. 

Some  scientists,  however,  dispute  this,  as  several  specimens 
of  the  cowboy  have  been  seen,  from  time  to  time,  who,  wander- 
ing into  the  busy  haunts  of  man,  have  —  under  the  influence  of 
excitement,  and  while  suffering  from  intense  thirst  —  been  seen 
to  detach  themselves  from  their  mustangs,  and  disappear  into 
business  houses,  where  their  wants  were  attended  to  by  a  man 
wearing  a  diamond  breastpin  and  a  white  apron.  Yet,  though 
this  was  proved  beyond  a  doubt  by  several  competent  witnesses, 
it  was  acknowledged  that  the  specimens  alluded  to  walked,  or 
rather  staggered,  with  uneven  and  wavering  steps.  This,  how- 
ever, does  not  disprove  the  development  theory. 

The  cowboy  does  not  wear  a  coat.  His  legs  are  weather- 
boarded  with  goatskin  overalls  to  protect  them  from  the  thorns 
of  the  mesquite ;  and  he  is  roofed  over  with  a  sombrero,  wide 
in  the  cornice  for  shade,  and  open  at  the  top  for  ventilation. 

In  the  use  of  the  lasso  and  profane  language,  he  has  no  equal. 
He  can  rope  a  steer,  throwing  the  noose  on  any  foot  of  the 
animal  as  it  runs  at  full  speed;  at  the  same  time  showing  a 
choice  in  the  matter  of  select  and  appropriate  anathemas  — 
,which  he  delivers  equally  well,  either  in  Mexican  or  United- 
States  language,  Long-Primer  type  —  that  is  perfectly  amazing, 
considering  his  limited  acquaintance  with  the  drama,  and  the 
refining  influences  of  civilized  life.  It  shows,  however,  what  long 
practice,  and  a  steady  devotion  to  one  pursuit,  will  accomplish. 

A  herd  of  cattle  travels  an  average  of  fifteen  miles  daily, 
often  more  than  that  when  the  streams  are  far  apart.  All  the 


SAM  GRANT,    CAPTAIN  OF  THE  DRIVE.         171 

herds  follow  the  same  trail,  which  is  plainly  defined  from  South- 
ern Texas  to  Wyoming,  —  a  distance  of  fourteen  hundred  miles. 
They  graze  as  they  travel,  guarded  on  every  side  by  the  drivers, 
who  take  turns  at  driving,  and  standing  guard  at  night.  Up  to 
a  few  years  ago,  many  herds  were  stampeded  and  captured  by 
Indians  on  the  route.  Old  herders  have  thrilling  tales  to  tell  of 
stampedes  in  dark  and  dismal  canyons  ;  of  attacks  by  Indians ; 
of  days  and  nights  passed  on  the  plains,  without  water  or  food, 
separated  from  their  companions,  and  pursued  by  the  untutored 
child  of  the  forest,  who  carries  a  regulation  musket,  and  a  blanket 
marked  U.  S. 

These  tales  contain  only  about  ten  ounces  of  truth  to  the 
ton,  and  among  Texans  they  are  only  current  at  a  heavy  dis- 
count ;  but,  when  the  honest  and  truthful  herder  meets  the 
health  and  romance  seeking  youth  from  the  East,  he  is  able  to 
dispose  of  them  at  par. 

Sam  Grant  has  been  on  the  trail,  driving  cattle  to  Kansas 
every  spring,  for  the  last  fifteen  years.  Sam  was  the  super- 
intendent of  the  Remnant's  ranch,  and  seemed  to  have  no 
ambition  beyond  working  with  cattle  and  horses,  and  the  ven- 
tilation of  his  apocryphal  adventures.  He  was  one  of  those 
strange  characters  to  be  met  with  in  Texas, — a  man  of  educa- 
tion and  talent,  whose  love  of  adventure  brought  him  there, 
and  whose  love  of  drink  kept  him  in  a  position  beneath  what 
his  talents  and  opportunities  would  indicate  he  was  fitted  for. 
Sam  was  a  graduate  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  When  a  boy 
at  school,  he  caught  trout  when  he  should  have  been  conju- 
gating Latin,  and  in  one  day  squandered  his  quarterly  allowance 
in  a  pie-feast  given  to  his  schoolmates.  At  college  he  culti- 
vated billiards  rather  than  books,  the  green-room  rather  than 
the  lecture-room,  and  yet  he  graduated  with  more  than  average 
honors.  His  excuses  for  absence  from  classes  and  lectures 
were  inspirations  elaborate  and  unassailable,  and  his  alibis, 
when  charged  with  participation  in  boyish  escapades,  brought 
confusion  and  dismay  upon  his  accusers.  What  the  boy  prom- 
ised to  be,  the  man  was. 

When  the  cowboys  gather  around  the  camp-fires  and  relate 
their  experience,  Sam  is  invariably  the  most  prominent  and  pro- 


172  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

nounced  liar  among  them.  There  are  more  dead  and  wounded 
Indians  in  one  chapter  of  Sam's  experience  than  there  are  in 
whole  volumes  of  tales  by  his  contemporaries.  He  has  trav- 
elled farther  without  water  than  a  camel  could ;  and  the  suffer- 
ing he  endured  on  one  drive,  when  the  whiskey  gave  out,  and 
he  existed  for  seventeen  days  without  any  thing  stronger  to 
drink  than  root-tea,  must  have  been  excruciating,  and,  as  Sam 
avers,  "would  have  been  death  to  a  man  with  less  nerve." 

"This  is  how  it  was,  Major:  in  the  spring  of  —  well,  more 
than  ten  years  ago  —  I  drove  four  thousand  head  of  cattle  to 
Colorado  for  Col.  McKean  of  Victoria.  I  was  captain  of  the 
drive,  and  had  twenty-three  men  with  me.  We  were  well  fixed, 
and  had  an  ox-wagon  loaded  with  provisions  and  things.  It  was 
a  late  spring,  and  the  grass  was  backward.  We  got  along  very 
well  until  we  got  to  the  northern  border  of  Texas  ;  for  in  those 
days,  ten  years  ago,  there  was  little  or  no  fencing  along  the  trail 
north  of  the  Colorado,  and  we  had  lots  of  range  to  graze  on. 
Now  there  is  so  much  land  taken  up  and  fenced  in,  that  the 
trail  in  Texas  is  little  better  than  a  crooked  lane  and  hard  lines 
to  find  enough  range  to  feed  on.  These  fellows  from  Ohio, 
Indiana,  and  other  Northern  and  Western  States,  —  the  bone 
and  sinew  of  the  country,  as  politicians  call  them,  —  have  made 
farms,  enclosed  pastures,  and  fenced  in  water-holes,  until  you 
can't  rest ;  and  I  say,  damn  such  bone  and  sinew !  They  are 
the  ruin  of  Texas,  and  have  everlastingly,  eternally,  now  and 
forever,  destroyed  the  best  grazing-land  in  the  world.  Western 
Texas,  sir,  was  never  intended  for  raising  farm-truck.  It  was 
intended  for  cattle  and  horses,  and  was  the  best  stock-range  on 
earth  until^  they  got  to  turning  over  the  sod  —  improving  the 
country,  as  they  call  it.  Lord,  forgive  them  for  such  improve- 
ments !  It  makes  me  sick  to  think  of  it.  I'm  sick  enough  to 
need  two  doctors,  a  druggery,  and  a  mineral-spring,  when  I 
think  ef  onions  and  Irish  potatoes  growing  where  mustang 
ponies  should  be  exercising,  and  where  four-year-old  steers 
should  be  getting  ripe  for  market.  Fences,  sir,  are  the  curse 
of  Western  Texas. 

"  As  I  was  saying,  the  country  was  open  then,  and  we  had 
water  and  grass  in  abundance  until  we  got  to  the  plains  beyond 


SAM  GRANT'S  STORY.  173 

where  the  town  of  Fort  Worth  is  now.  Few  settlers  lived  in 
that  country  then  ;  and  the  Indians  made  occasional  raids  down 
that  way  in  the  full  of  the  moon,  and  drove  off  what  stock  they 
could  find. 

"We  left  F^ort  Worth  with  plenty  of  provisions,  a  canteen 
of  water,  and  a  twenty-five-gallon  keg  of  whiskey  —  tolerably 
liberal  proportion  of  whiskey  to  the  amount  of  water !  but,  you 
see,  we  could  get  water  from  the  creeks  and  branches  as  we 
went  along ;  but  whiskey  was  not  to  be  found  on  the  plains. 

"One  day's  drive  is  just  like  another, — breakfast  of  coffee, 
biscuit,  and  bacon,  at  six  o'clock,  the  men  doing  the  cooking  by 
turns,  if  we  have  no  regular  cook.  Then  the  herd  is  started. 
The  cattle  have  been  rounded-up  under  guard  all  night. 

"The  route  that  the  trail  follows  is  selected  with  a  view  to 
having  watering-places  at  the  end  of  each  day's  drive.  There 
is  a  great  deal  of  monotony,  and  a  vast  quantity  of  dust,  con- 
nected with  driving  cattle.  The  only  variety  we  have  is  the 
riding  after  some  of  those  strike-for-freedom  steers  that  are 
always  trying  to  get  away  from  the  herd,  in  hunting  jackass- 
rabbits,  and  in  a  social  glass  and  game  in  camp  at  night. 

"  After  we  crossed  the  Trinity,  we  found  the  grass  short  and 
the  water  scarce.  One  day  we  had  to  drive  thirty  miles  from 
water  to  water ;  and  we  lost  a  number  of  cattle  that  were  not 
able  to  keep  up  with  the  herd,  and  dropped  out,  besides  some 
that  got  drowned  in  the  river.  The  cattle  were  so  crazy  for 
water  that  they  crowded  on  top  of  each  other,  and  many  were 
pushed  under  and  drowned.  We  stock-drivers  never  steal 
cattle  ;  but,  if  a  strange  steer  gets  mixed  up  with  our  herd,  how 
can  we  help  it  ?  We  can't  stop  to  cut  it  out.  On  every  drive 
we  leave  on  the  trail  quite  a  number  of  cattle  that  have  given 
out ;  but  a  driver  who  understands  his  business  will  never  let 
his  herd  fall  below  the  number  that  he  started  out  with. 

"We  had  got  to  the  Clear  Fork  of  the  Little  Wichita,  and 
were  in  camp  one  night,  with  the  cattle  bunched  out  on  the 
prairie,  under  guard.  It  was  a  calm,  clear  moonlight  night. 
We  were  camped  under  a  wooded  bluff  on  the  banks  of  a  small 
creek.  All  but  the  guards  were  asleep,  and  not  a  sound  could 
be  heard  but  that  made  by  the  cattle  grazing  on  the  short,  dry 


174  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

grass.  If  any  one  had  dropped  a  pin,  its  fall  would  have  sounded 
like  a  crowbar  coming  down  on  a  tin  roof.  Suddenly,  from  the 
heights  above  us,  came  a  sound,  — the  most  devilish  and  terrible 
that  ever  falls  on  a  frontiersman's  ear, — the  bloodthirsty  yell 
of  the  savage.  Bullets  and  arrows  fell  thick  and  fast  around 
us.  One-half  of  my  comrades  were  killed  by  the  first  discharge  ; 
and  before  we,  the  survivors,  could  reach  our  saddle-horses 
where  they  were  staked  out,  two  of  our  number  were  shot  down. 
There  were  only  three  of  us  left.  The  firing  and  the  yells  of 
the  savages  frightened  our  horses,  and  as  many  of  them  as 
could  break  their  lariats  stampeded.  Only  three  horses  were 
left.  In  my  frantic  efforts  to  get  to  the  horses,  I  fell,  and 
sprained  my  ankle  slightly.  Before  I  got  on  my  feet  again, 
my  two  comrades  were  mounted,  and  had  gone.  I  ran  to  a 
small  mott  of  timber  fifty  yards  from  where  we  had  been 
camped.  As  I  reached  the  shadow  of  the  trees,  the  Indians 
rushed  down  the  bluff,  crossed  the  creek,  and  poured  into  our 
camp.  I  thought  it  was  all  up  with  me ;  but  they  had  not  dis- 
covered me ;  and  while  they  were  engaged  in  ransacking  our 
supply-wagon,  and  scalping  the  dead,  I  climbed  up  a  tree. 
There  was  no  chance  of  escape  for  me.  If  I  took  to  the  prairie, 
I  would  at  once  be  discovered ;  for  the  moon  was  bright,  and 
the  prairie  was  without  cover  in  the  only  direction  I  could  go. 
If  I  waited  until  daylight,  no  doubt  I  would  be  found  by  the 
Indians.  In  this  dilemma  I  knew  not  what  was  best  to  do. 
As  I  saw  them  scalp  my  dead  comrades,  and,  in  two  or  three 
instances,  mutilate  the  remains,  I  became  indignant ;  but  when 
the  fiends  found  the  barrel  of  whiskey,  announced  the  discovery 
by  yells  of  joy,  and  proceeded  to  drink  that  valuable  medicine 
by  cupfuls,  I  felt  so  outraged,  that,  for  a  moment,  I  thought  of 
rushing  in  among  them,  single-handed,  and  selling  my  life  as 
dearly  as  possible.  All  the  men  guarding  the  cattle  were  killed, 
and  the  cattle  stampeded. 

"While  I  was  thinking  the  matter  over, — for  it  takes  quite 
an  amount  of  time  to  thoroughly  arrange  and  mature  the  plan 
of  such  an  attack  as  I  contemplated,  —  I  made  a  discovery  that 
gave  me  some  hope.  The  Indians  were  getting  drunk.  In 
two  hours  after  they  began  to  drink  they  were  all  lying  on  the 


THE    WHISKEY  ALL    GONE.  175 

ground  in  a  beastly  state  of  intoxication.  I  waited  another 
hour,  fearing  that,  if  I  disturbed  them,  some  Indian  less  drunk 
than  the  others  might  insist  on  entering  into  a  joint  discussion 
with  me.  That  fatal  hour !  Had  I  not  waited  I  might  have 
saved  at  least  —  but,  as  the  novelists  say,  I  anticipate. 

"  I  cautiously  approached  the  Indians  as  they  lay  scattered 
around  in  the  moonlight.  There  were  fifteen  of  them,  all  dead 
drunk  and  asleep.  I  had  a  revolver  in  each  hand,  and  a  bowie 
in  my  boot,  but  I  would  have  been  safe  without  weapons  :  there 
was  no  danger  of  the  Indians  awaking. 

"  Close  to  our  wagon  lay  my  chum,  Frontier  Dick.  He  was 
a  good  one,  he  was ;  but  he  had  roped  his  last  steer,  driven  his 
last  drive,  and  now  he  was  rounded-up  himself,  and  road-branded 
for  the  long  trail.  I  was  so  mad  when  I  saw  he  had  been  scalped, 
that  I  kicked  the  nearest  Indian  over  the  bank,  into  the  creek. 

"Knowing  that  the  Indians  had  horses  staked  somewhere 
up  on  the  bluff,  I  calculated  to  take  some  supplies  from  the 
wagon,  find  a  horse,  and  light  out  on  the  back  trail.  When  I 
got  to  the  wagon,  the  sight  that  met  my  eyes  was  enough  to 
have  made  a  raving  maniac  of  a  less  strong-minded  man.  It 
chilled  me  :  it  was  unutterably  horrific.  All  the  whiskey  (four 
dollars  a  gallon  at  Fort  Worth)  was  gone.  The  last  drop  of  it 
was  trickling  on  the  ground.  The  vile  Indians  had  left  the 
faucet  open  when  they  tumbled  down  in  their  drunken  sleep ; 
and  here  was  I,  all  alone,  two  hundred  miles  from  a  house,  and 
left  without  even  as  much  of  the  precious  fluid  as  would  cure 
a  rattlesnake  bite.  The  ground  was  all  wet  and  sloppy  under 
the  barrel,  —  the  most  extravagant  irrigation  I  ever  saw. 
Wasn't  I  mad,  though,  when  I  thought  of  the  atrocity  of  the 
act !  Hoo-ee !  How  I  did  cuss  and  snort  and  cavort  !  You 
should  have  seen  me.  I  pawed  around,  and  stepped  as  high  as 
a  blind  dog  in  a  wheat-field,  when  I  realized  the  vast  superficial 
area  of  the  savage  villany  that  left  me  destitute  of  the  very 
necessities  of  life.  I  determined  to  have  revenge.  The  blood 
of  my  butchered  companions,  and  the  four-dollar  whiskey  on 
the  ground,  cried  aloud  for  vengeance.  You  should  have  tasted 
that  liquor,  —  not  a  bead  on  it  that  was  not  as  big  as  a  base- 
ball, and  not  a  headache  in  a  cord  of  it.  Those  red  devils 


1 76 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


would  have  waked  up  next  morning  without  a  touch  of  head- 
ache if  I  had  not  made  other  arrangements.  To  make  my 
story  short,  I  scalped  them.  I  didn't  kill  them,  but  I  raised 
the  hair  of  every  one  of  them  while  they  were  alive.  It  didn't 
wake  them,  either  :  most  of  them  just  groaned,  and  turned  over. 
I  would  have  skinned  one  or  two  of  them  if  I  had  had  time ; 


:<**& 

/ft  -•' 

«t     * 


THE    WHISKEY    ALL    GONE. 


but  I  was  compelled  to  get  away  from  there.  Securing  a  horse 
belonging  to  one  of  the  Indians,  and  some  provisions,  I  started. 
"  I  lost  my  way,  and  for  two  days  travelled  without  knowing 
where  I  was.  Then  my  provisions  gave  out,  through  my  own 
carelessness  and  the  enterprise  of  a  wild  hog.  I  found  I  was 
on  a  waterless  plain  called  the  Llano  Salado.  For  two  days 
I  had  nothing  to  drink.  At  the  end  of  the  second  day  I  killed 


SORRY  HE  DID  NOT  SKIN  THE  SAVAGES.     177 

my  horse,  —  he  was  dying  with  thirst,  —  and  drank  some  of 
his  blood.  Then  I  was  alone  on  the  prairie,  and  going  mad. 
When  I  slept,  I  dreamed  of  cool  springs,  murmuring  brooks, 
and  splendid  soda-water  fountains.  When  awake,  I  thought 
of  all  manner  of  cool  drinks ;  I  imagined  I  heard  the  chink  of 
ice  in  the  glass,  and,  in  my  disordered  fancy,  could  hear  the 
barman  inquire  if  I  wanted  a  straw  in  mine. 

"  I  was  rescued  by  a  party  of  soldiers  from  Fort  McKavett, 
and  soon  recovered  my  reason  ;  but  I  have  never  got  over  the 
sight  of  the  empty  barrel  with  the  last  drops  dripping  from  the 
faucet :  and  when  I  think  of  those  fifteen  Indians  waking  up 
next  morning,  —  having  probably  caught  cold  from  sleeping 
with  their  heads  uncovered,  —  my  conscience  reproves  me,  and 
the  pangs  of  remorse  torture  me,  when  I  remember  that  I  did 
not  skin  some  of  the  savages." 


1 78 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 


WE  returned  to  the  hotel,  we  found  a 
seedy-looking  man  talking  to  the  land- 
lord. The  latter  was  trying  to  fix  his 
attention  on  a  dead  rat  that  was  lying 
on  the  street,  and  he  seemed  anxious 
that  the  man  should  finish  his  story, 
and  go  away.  Judging  by  the  elastic 
character  of  the  tales  the  seedy-looking 
man  was  telling,  I  supposed  he  was  an 
insurance-agent.  The  landlord  intro- 
duced him  to  us.  I  asked  him  what 
company  he  represented,  which  led  to 
mutual  explanations.  He  said  he  was 

a  real-estate  agent.  He  had  lands  to  sell  in  every  county  in 
Texas,  in  quantities  to  suit  customers,  from  an  eleven-league 
grant  to  a  lot  in  a  graveyard.  He  wanted  to  know  if  we  were 
prospecting  for  land.  I  intimated  that  we  would  not  mind 
buying  a  ranch  or  two  if  the  location  and  price  would  suit. 

In  the  most  enthusiastic  manner,  and  with  extravagant  ges- 
tures, he  told  me  of  several  tracts  and  leagues  of  land  where 
the  grass  was  absolutely  offensive  in  its  luxuriance,  and  where 
murmering  streams  supplied  countless  herds  with  refreshing 
water.  He  spoke  of  fields  burdened  with  golden  grain,  of  the 
silken  plumes  of  the  waving  corn,  and  the  emerald  green  of  the 
sugar-cane.  He  pictured  scenes  which  would  delight  the  eye 
of  the  artist.  Such  timbered  shelter  as  he  described !  —  where 
cows  live  and  flourish  until  they  are  so  old  that  the  yearly 
wrinkles  cover  their  horns  to  the  very  tips,  making  it  necessary, 
in  some  cases,  to  attach  corn-cobs  for  the  wrinkles  to  grow  out  on. 


ELASTIC   TALES.  179 

He  told  us  of  farms  where  the  fences  would  last  until  our 
grandchildren  would  be  decrepit  with  age,  and  where  the  corn 
grew  so  luxuriantly  that  they  used  the  stalks  for  wagon-tongues. 
Every  thing  he  had  for  sale  was  cheap,  and  the  terms  easy. 

"  Be-a-u-ti-ful,  sir !  — just  the  thing  to  suit  you  —  exactly  what 
you  want — a  small  payment  down  —  balance,  five  yearly  pay- 
ments—  ten  per  cent  interest."  He  did  not  stop  to  give  us  a 
chance  to  say  a  word  for  two  hours.  His  harangue  was  one  of 
the  most  intensely  gorgeous  pieces  of  brass-mounted  mendacity 
I  ever  listened  to.  Recognizing  that  he  was  an  interested 
party,  I  was  prepared  to  receive  his  statements  cum  grano  salts, 
as  the  Irish  say ;  but  I  was  not  prepared  to  meet  such  a  volumi- 
nous and  fluent  liar,  or  to  hear  such  grapes-of-Eshcol  stories 
about  the  "  Garden  of  the  Universe,"  as  he  chose  to  call  Texas. 
Shades  of  Homer,  Munchausen,  and  Monte-Cristo  !  What  an 
abundant  imagination  that  land-agent  had  !  If  any  one  has  a 
lily  to  paint,  or  fine  gold  to  gild,  he  is  the  man  to  do  it.  His 
reference  to  a  Canadian  thistle  would  leave  the  impression  that 
you  had  been  listening  to  a  detailed  description  of  one  of  the 
cedars  of  Lebanon.  His  intimation  that  the  wealth  and  treas- 
ures of  the  Indies  were  but  a  mere  bagatelle  —  the  wealth  of  a 
church-mouse,  in  fact  —  when  compared  with  the  latent  riches 
lying  hid  in  Texas  soil,  and  waiting  to  be  appropriated  by  the 
transplanted  Fenian  and  Teutonic  exile,  was  decidedly  neat  and 
gratifying. 

Tell  us  about  Sindbad's  valley  of  diamonds,  and  of  that  other 
valley  of  Thessaly,  or  tell  us  the  tale  of  Jack's  gigantic  bean- 
stalk, and  we  incline  a  credulous  ear.  Such  things  may  be : 
Quien  sabe?  But  to  talk,  to  one  who  has  been  there,  of  a 
hundred  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre  ;  of  tomato-vines  up.  which 
you  can  climb  out  of  reach  of  an  infuriated  bovine  ;  of  the  con- 
genial society  to  be  found  in  Texas  (men  who  can  consistent- 
ly cover  six  inches  of  whiskey  daily,  and  run  a  semi-weekly 
prayer-meeting),  —  this  is  pressing  matters  a  little  too  far. 
What  intensified  the  insult  to  truth,  in  the  case  of  this  land- 
agent,  was,  that  he  possessed  a  child-like  style  calculated  to 
gain  the  confidence  of  the  credulous  foreigner.  When  he  made 
an  assertion,  truth,  disgusted,  crept  back  into  her  well.  I  do 


l8o  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

not  think  that  he  meant  to  overstep  the  limits  of  fact  to  any 
great  extent.  He  had  trained  himself  to  believe  a  great  deal 
of  what  he  said.  Possibly  he  thought  that  truth  unadulterated 
was  insipid,  and  that  to  make  prosy  truth  palatable  it  required 
just  a  little  alloy  of  poetic  fiction  to  correct  it,  and  give  it  tone  : 
like  Mrs.  Brown,  when  she  took  ginger  for  her  stomach,  she 
put  in  a  little  —  very  little  —  brandy,  "just  to  correct  the  gin- 
ger." 

All  lands  offered  for  sale  by  real-estate  agents  are  rich  and 
fruitful.  If  there  are  rocks  on  it,  why,  it  is  all  the  more  valu- 
able :  you  can  pick  up  the  rocks,  and  build  such  fine  everlast- 
ing fences  with  them  !  If  you  object  to  the  timber,  the  agent 
will  demonstrate  to  you  that  it  is  more  valuable  than  the  land. 
If  you  hesitate  because  there  is  no  timber,  he  will  prove  to  you 
that  the  amount  you  save  by  not  having  to  cut  down  timber 
is  more  than  the  price  he  asks  for  the  farm.  The  land  is 
well  watered.  Springs  and  brooks  murmur  and  meander  all 
through  it. 

The  real-estate  agent,  as  a  general  rule,  only  shows  the 
bright  and  sound  side  of  the  apple.  Occasionally  one  is  found 
who  has  a  bowing  acquaintance  with  truth  ;  but  even  he  will 
only  tell  the  prospective  purchaser  of  the  advantages  the  land 
offers,  suppressing  any  information  as  to  disadvantages  that 
might  prejudice  the  prospect  of  sale. 

The  immigration  agent  is  built  of  the  same  material  as  the 
real-estate  agent ;  but  he  is  more  dangerous,  because  his  range 
is  more  extended.  He  represents  usually  the  immense  tracts 
of  land  owned  by  railroad  companies  ;  while  the  real-estate  agent 
may  only  represent  part  of  a  county,  or  the  lands  in  the  imme- 
diate neighborhood  of  the  place  where  he  lives.  The  immigra- 
tion agent  can  describe  the  State  of  Texas  so  as  to  place  before 
the  mind's  eye  of  the  foreigner  a  wonderful  vision  of  an  elysium 
where  milk  and  honey  flow  from  perennial  springs,  and  where 
lying  ("/.  pr.  of  lie.  Being  prostrate;  to  rest  horizontally."  — 
WEBSTER)  under  the  shade  of  a  tree,  and  drinking  buttermilk, 
is  called  work ;  whereas,  if  he  were  to  conceal  all  of  the  good 
things  that  Texas  contains,  and  tell  all  the  bad  and  disagree- 
able things  in  her  borders,  he  might  draw  a  picture  that  would 


THE    OLD    VETERAN.  181 

prevent    even   the   hardy  Northern  murderer  from  coming  to 
Texas. 

The  real-estate  agent  and  the  immigration  agent  have  proba- 
bly no  superior  in  the  art  of  decorative  mendacity ;  but  they  have 
an  equal,  —  the  old  Texas  veteran.  We  met  one  of  the  old  vet- 
erans at  Eagle  Lake  while  we  were  there.  I  cannot  yet  decide 
what  form  of  capital  punishment  would  be  severe  enough  for 
his  case. 

The  old  hero  of  the  war  with  Mexico  is  very  numerous  in 
Texas.  He  received  his  "baptism  of  fire"  at  San  Jacinto  or 
Goliad.  He  was  exceedingly  intimate  with  Gen.  Sam  Houston  ; 
and,,if  you  give  him  a  chance,  he  boils  over 
with  reminiscences  of  the  confidential  con- 
versation he  had  with  the  father  of  Texas, 
"way  back  in  '36."  The  old  veterans  — 
"battle-scarred  heroes,"  the  newspaper 
reporters  call  them  —  die  at  the  rate  of 
twenty-three  hundred  per  annum  ;  and  their 
obituary  notices  and  biographies  in  the 

,  ,  ,  ,         r  .  OLD    VETERAN. 

local  papers,  under  the  head  of  "  Another 
Old  Landmark  Gone,"  all  bear  a  striking  resemblance  to  each 
other.  There  are  enough  of  the  veterans  of  ''36  left  in  Texas 
to  furnish  the  State  with  gory  fiction  for  the  next  ninety  years. 
It  may  be  wrong  to  suggest  an  act  that  would  be  against  the 
peace  and  dignity  of  the  State ;  yet,  if  an  aged  Texan  veteran 
should  try  to  inflict  on  you  any  of  the  unpublished  history  that 
he  continually  overflows  with,  I  would  advise  you  to  steal  the 
first  horse  you  can  find,  and  leave  the  neighborhood.  If  you 
should  be  caught  and  hung,  or  indicted  for  horse-stealing,  it 
will  be  less  distressing  to  your  surviving  relatives  to  know  that 
your  career  ended  in  that  way,  than  that  you  should  have  suf- 
fered a  lingering  death  at  the  hands  of  the  old  veteran.  Under 
the  circumstances,  a  man  would  be  justified  in  stealing  a  whole 
narrow-gauge  railroad,  franchise  and  all,  rather  than  take  the 
risks.  When  you  are  injudicious  or  reckless  enough  to  allow 
an  old  veteran  to  corner  you,  he  begins  his  fiendish  work  in  a 
quiet  way.  "  Are  you  related  to  old  Gen.  Soandso,  who  fought 
the  Indians  at  Suchandsucha  Creek  in  '35  ?"  You  remind  him 


1 82  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

so  much  of  the  old  general,  he  tells  you.  Then  he  will  ask  you 
if  you  can  see  yonder  court-house  :  and  he  will  tell  you  that  he 
killed  a  buck  "right  thar  in  1835,  'bout  this  time  o'  year,"  or  it 
may  be  that  he  scalped  an  Indian  "  thar ; "  but  he  is  sure  to 
have  done  something  on  that  spot,  no  matter  what  it  was. 
That  is  invariably  the  way  that  the  men  who  gained  the  inde- 
pendence of  Texas  begin  to  swop  lies  with  a  stranger  from 
the  North.  Then  he  will  grow  bolder,  and  tell  you  an  anec- 
dote about  Deaf  Smith,  the  scout.  If  you  do  not  get  excused 
at  this  point,  on  account  of  having  to  go  to  see  a  century-plant, 
you  are  lost,  and  nothing  will  save  you  from  a  recital  of  all  the 
incidents  of  grim-visaged  war,  and  a  modest  statement  of  how 
different  matters  would  have  been  if  Fannin  had  only  taken 
the  veteran's  advice  on  the  morning  of  the  massacre  at  Goliad. 
It  is  no  use  to  invite  him  to  drink,  with  the  hope  of  stemming 
the  flood  of  lies :  he  will  accept,  of  course ;  but  he  will  hold  on 
to  your  arm  with  one  hand,  while  he  reaches  for  the  stimulant 
with  the  other.  The  proper  time  to  stop  a  leak  is  at  the  begin- 
ning ;  but  now  you  are  in  the  midst  of  the  raging  maelstrom  of 
crude  frontier  eloquence,  floating  along,  as  it  were,  amid  the 
debris  of  the  English  language,  while  the  odor  of  an  originally 
bad  breath,  aggravated  by  a  cheap  article  of  tobacco,  fills  the 
air.  He  has  a  reckless  habit  of  spluttering  tobacco-juice  over 
the  surrounding  landscape.  He  reads  your  thoughts,  and  his 
iron  grasp  never  relaxes.  All  the  time,  that  mitrailleuse  of  a 
mouth,  that  eruptive  crater  of  a  mud-volcano,  keeps  on  throw- 
ing out  jets  of  tobacco-juice,  gas,  and  lies,  in  quantities  that 
would  excite  astonishment  if  disgust  did  not  overcome  every 
other  emotion.  He  fights  all  his  battles  o'er  again,  and  through 
field  and  flood  he  carries  you  with  him,  so  to  speak.  You 
have  to  accompany  him  to  Texas,  in  company  with  a  number 
of  other  adventurers  and  horse-thieves,  in  1835.  You  have  to 
camp  out,  and  sleep  with  him  under  the  same  blanket,  while 
Indians  and  wolves  prowl  around  in  the  bushes.  You  surfer 
under  Mexican  tyranny,  are  imprisoned,  chained,  taken  to 
Mexico,  and  almost  starved  to  death  on  the  way  :  you  make 
your  escape,  join  the  patriot  army,  are  massacred  with  Fannin 
at  Goliad,  escape  slaughter  at  the  Alamo  by  proving  an  alibi, 


SHAKING  HIM  OFF,  183 

and  still  survive  to  be  taken  prisoner  some  more  at  Mier.  At 
last  you  drive  out  the  hireling  foe,  and  hurl  Santa  Anna  into 
captivity  at  San  Jacinto  ;  but,  before  you  have  a  chance  to  rest, 
the  old  veteran  puts  you  to  work  clearing  land,  mauling  rails 
in  the  month  of  June,  organizing  vigilance  committees,  and 
going  to  the  Legislature.  Finally,  when  you  are  almost  worn 
out,  and  wish  you  were  dead  anyhow,  he  annexes  you  to  the 
United  States  in  1841. 

The  old  veteran  keeps  on,  although  you  tell  him  you  must 
go  to  the  post-office  before  the  mail  closes.  He  asks  you  to 
wait  a  moment,  until  he  gives  you  the  particulars  of  the  duel 

between  Gen. With  a  mighty  effort  you  tear  yourself  from 

his  grasp  and  the  fascination  of  his  eye.  Once  more  you  are  a 
free  man  ;  and,  glancing  back  as  you  hurry  away,  you  see  the 
relic  of  mistaken  Mexican  clemency  looking  about  for  a  fresh 
victim.  When  the  old  veteran  is  not  sitting  on  a  fence  at 
home,  bearing  false  witness  against  the  facts  of  history,  he  is 
either  a  prominent  figure  at  the  re-union  of  somebody's  brigade, 
talking  at  a  meeting  commemorative  of  the  battle  of  Cowhouse 
Creek  or  some  such  place,  or  making  the  rounds  with  a  peti- 
tion to  the  Legislature  asking  for  another  pension  :  but  the 
legislators  know  him  ;  and  believing  that  it  is  this  hope,  spring- 
ing eternal  in  the  veteran's  breast,  that  is  the  cause  of  his  lon- 
gevity, they  have  of  late  years  refused  to  be  accomplices  in 
his  continued  existence.  They  have  refused  to  give  him  any 
more  pension,  probably  actuated  by  the  base,  selfish  motive  of 
making  themselves  popular  with  the  masses. 

The  old  hero  shines  at  every  public  gathering  in  Texas,  from 
the  anniversary  of  the  death  of  a  stage-robber  down  to  a  county 
convention.  A  barbecue  without  a  brigade  of  veterans  is  some- 
thing that  has  never  taken  place  in  Texas. 

Among  the  old  Texas  veterans  there  are  real  heroes,  —  men 
who  fought  and  suffered  for  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  whose 
self-sacrifice  and  daring  deeds  of  valor  gave  Texas  her  indepen- 
dence. Against  these  I  have  no  word  to  say :  they  deserve  all 
honor  and  praise.  What  I  have  said  applies  to  the  alleged  vet- 
erans,—  the  men  who,  when  the  real  veterans  were  driving  back 
Santa  Anna's  troops,  were  fighting  cockleburs  in  the  cotton- 


1 84  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

fields  of  Alabama,  and  boiling  tar  in  North  Carolina ;  who 
afterwards  came  to  Texas,  and  developed  into  the  old  liars  that 
they  are.  These  alleged  veterans  are  common  to  all  countries 
that  have  a  history  or  that  own  a  battlefield. 

The  undulating  prairies  and  high  hills  of  the  great  stock- 
raising  counties  of  Western  Texas  are  the  most  healthy  part  of 
the  earth's  crust  I  have  ever  seen,  or  ever  expect  to  see.  It  is 
asserted  that  there  the  inhabitants  never  die  of  disease  or  age. 
They  either  shuffle  off  the  coil  through  the  instrumentality  of 
a  six-shooter,  or  grow  old,  dry  up,  and  blow  away.  Tradition 
tells  of  a  misguided  young  doctor  who  went  West  hoping  to 
make  a  living  out  of  the  sufferings  of  his  fellows,  but  he  soon 
found  that  his  pills  were  literally  a  drug  in  the  market.  People 
refused  his  twenty-drops-in-a-teaspoonful-of-water,  and  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  his  mustard-plasters  :  so  he  went  from 
bad  to  worse,  and  from  worse  to  whiskey ;  and  the  last  heard  of 
him  he  had  stolen  a  grindstone,  and  was  rolling  around  trying 
to  make  a  living  sharpening  bowies,  scissors,  and  razors. 

There  is  a  legend  to  the  effect,  that  once  upon  a  time  some 
immigrants,  entering  Texas  at  Red  River,  met  a  very  old  man, 
with  beard  as  white  as  snow,  and  features  seared  and  shrunken 
by  the  hand  of  time, — a  mere  shadow  of  antiquity,  a  human 
wrinkle,  an  allegory  of  age.  This  antique  petrification  was 
hurrying  with  all  speed  to  the  boundary  of  the  State.  On 
being  interrogated  as  to  his  reasons  for  such  haste,  he  stopped 
not,  neither  did  he  pause  ;  but,  as  his  weird  form  disappeared 
in  the  distance,  the  murmuring  winds  brought  back  the  mourn- 
ful reply,  "  I  am  tired  of  life  and  of  the  monotony  of  the  ages, 
I  am  weary  of  the  slow  steps  of  time  and  the  dragging  march 
of  the  centuries,  and  I  am  hurrying  out  of  Texas  that  I  may 
find  some  place  where  people  can  die." 

A  high-born  gentleman  of  Mexican  descent  was,  not  long 
since,  searching  through  the  old  dusty  records  of  Bexar  County. 
He  loved  to  delve  among  these  old  relics  of  by-gone  days. 
With  a  melancholy  interest  he  searched  for  forgotten  records 
of  the  past,  on  which  to  base  a  fraudulent  claim  to  the  land 
and  improvements  of  some  present  occupant,  who  would  prefer 
to  surfer  blackmail  to  the  extent  of  a  few  hundred  dollars. 


DON  JOSE  IGNACIO  FUERTE    VEJEZ.  185 

rather  than  bear  the  expense  and  uncertainty  incident  to  a  law- 
suit. While  thus  piratically  engaged,  he  discovered  an  old 
document  written  in  Spanish,  bearing  date  1810,  and  entitled 
"An  Account  of  the  Marvellous  Restoration  to  Health  of  Don 
Juan  Ignacio  Fuerte  Vejez."  Inasmuch  as  this  document  goes 
to  illustrate,  or  rather  demonstrate,  that  Western  Texas  is 
healthy  beyond  any  other  part  of  the  world,  a  brief  synopsis  of 
the  strange  and  romantic  incident  narrated  therein  is  hereby 
given. 

Don  Juan  Vejez,  as  we  shall  abbreviate  his  rather  attenuated 
name,  was  born  in  old  Spain.  His  parents  were  honest,  and, 
no  doubt,  poor.  The  young  man  was  endowed  with  a  very 
feeble  constitution.  When  he  was  born,  all  the  old  ladies  in 
the  neighborhood  cheered  up  the  parents  of  the  puny  infant 
with  the  prediction  that  he  could  not  live.  No  such  luck  was 
in  store  for  them.  He  lived  and  grew  up,  but  with  a  shattered 
constitution.  He  succeeded  in  reaching  his  fortieth  year  with- 
out dying  ;  but  at  that  time  consumption  had  made  such  inroads 
that  the  doctors  declared  his  very  existence  to  be  an  insult  to 
the  profession.  Probably  his  unwillingness  to  fortify  his  sys- 
tem with  their  remedies  had  much  to  do  with  the  matter. 
Even  at  that  early  day  (1709)  the  fame  of  Western  Texas  as  a 
health  resort  had  reached  Spain,  and  Don  Vejez  determined  to 
give  the  Texas  climate  a  chance  to  cure  him.  It  was  asking  a 
great  deal  of  the  climate,  but  he  was  not  particular  about  that. 
He  reached  the  Canary  Islands  just  as  a  colony  of  thirteen 
families  was  setting  out  with  the  intention  of  moving  to  San 
Fernando  de  Bexar,  as  the  present  town  of  San  Antonia,  Tex., 
was  then  called.  Don  Vejez  joined  the  emigrants.  Nothing 
but  the  hope  of  administering  on  his  baggage,  of  which  he 
had  considerable,  induced  the  colonists  to  allow  him  to  accom- 
pany them.  Count  Jose  Maria  de  Cuatro  Palacios,  who  had 
charge  of  the  party,  said  to  the  Marquis  Tejada  Hernandez  de 
los  Santos,  as  he  motioned  with  his  thumb  over  his  shoulder  in 
the  direction  of  the  emaciated  skeleton,  "  I'm  afraid  he  will 
not  last  long  enough  for  us  to  utilize  him  in  starting  our  new 
graveyard  in  San  Fernando."  —  "I  fear  he  will  not,"  said  the 
marquis,  who  had  known  Vejez  in  Spain.  "  He  always  was  an 


1 86  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

unaccommodating  old  fellow,  but  I'll  risk  a  box  of  cigars  on 
it  that  he  gets  there." 

When  the  caravan  arrived  at  the  outposts  of  the  old  mission 
of  San  Jose,  Don  Vejez  was  still  along  with  the  party,  but 
apparently  in  a  dying  condition.  He  was  lifted  out  of  the  rude 
vehicle,  and,  for  convenience'  sake,  was  placed  in  a  side  chapel. 

Seven  days  have  come  and  gone,  as  the  novelists  say. 

The  Marquis  de  los  Santos  meets  Count  Cuatro  Palacios  on 
the  plaza.  "  I'll  take  that  box  of  cigars,"  said  the  marquis. 

"  No,"  said  Count  Cuatro  :  "  the  bet  was,  that  the  old  skele- 
ton would  not  be  utilized  in  starting  our  graveyard.  He  is 
here,  but  he  may  recover."  And  they  both  laughed  heartily 
and  heartlessly. 

"  Of  whom  were  you  speaking,  senors  ? "  said  a  tall,  dark 
stranger,  who  stepped  up  to  them. 

"  We  were  talking  about  that  long-winded  old  boneyard,  Don 
Vejez,  who  is  suffering  for  a  funeral,"  remarked  Palacios. 

"Draw  !  "  shouted  the  stranger  ;  and  his  blade  flashed  in  the 
sunlight.  The  two  noblemen  were  amazed. 

"Who  are  you?"  they  asked,  as  they  placed  their  hands  on 
their  swords. 

"  I  am  Vejez,  with  whom  you  proposed  to  start  your  grave- 
yard ;  but,  thanks  to  the  climate  of  this  presidio,  I  am  suffi- 
ciently recovered  to  start  a  graveyard  of  my  own.  Defend 
yourselves ! " 

The  ancient  records  of  San  Fernando  de  Bexar  show  that 
the  first  two  of  the  colonists  from  the  Canary  Islands  who  died 
were  the  Count  Jose  Maria  de  Cuatro  Palacios  and  the  Marquis 
Tejada  Hernandez  de  los  Santos. 

It  was  indeed  Vejez.  In  a  few  days  the  dying  invalid  had 
been  transformed  into  an  able-bodied  man.  His  stomach  had 
so  completely  regained  its  tone  that  he  could  astonish  it  with 
successive  cocktails  without  any  injury  whatever,  except,  per- 
haps, to  the  cocktails.  He  so  entirely  recovered  his  appetite, 
that  he  was  a  terror  to  boarding-houses.  The  venders  of  patent 
medicines  applied  to  him  for  his  photograph,  to  be  used  in  their 
advertisements  under  the  head  of  "After  Taking." 

Let  us  pass  over  an  entire  century,  and  again  visit 


THE  MARQUIS  AND   THE   COUNT. 


I87 


sidio.     It  is  the  year  1810;  and  San  Fernando  has,  by  royal 
decree,  changed  its  name  to  San  Antonio.     It  is  a  city  now. 


DON    VEJEZ,    THE    MARQUIS,    AND    THE    COUNT. 


There  are  more  houses,  more  soldiers,  but  fewer  Indians,  than 
in  1710.     Several  generations  have  been  killed  in  battle  with 


1 88  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

the  Indians,  and  consigned  to  the  graveyard  that  Don  Vejez 
was  so  prompt  in  starting.  Moss  is  on  the  tombstones  of  the 
two  oldest  inhabitants  of  the  over-crowded  cemetery.  But  how 
about  the  man  who  came  to  San  Fernando  for  his  health  a 
hundred  years  ago  ?  Can  his  grave  be  seen  ?  It  cannot  be 
found.  No  tombstone  bears  his  name  :  no  marble  tablet  on 
the  walls  of  the  gray  old  cathedral  commemorates  the  virtues 
of  Don  Juan  Ignacio  Fuerte  Vejez.  This  is  not  surprising, 
because  the  old  man  still  lives.  One  hundred  and  forty  sum- 
mers have  slightly  browned  his  cheek,  and  an  equal  number  of 
winters  have  blanched  his  locks.  He  still  goes  around  with  the 
boys,  as  he  calls  the  decrepit  old  relics  of  eighty  or  ninety 
years,  and  predicts  that  their  mothers  will  never  raise  them. 
As  he  steps  briskly  along  the  streets  of  San  Antonio,  the 
undertaker  comes  out  of  his  shop,  and  casts  a  long,  bewildered 
glance  after  his  retreating  form- 
Quite  early  in  life,  comparatively  speaking,  he  had  married  ; 
and  the  result  was,  that,  in  1810,  a  host  of  adults  called  him 
great-grandfather.  They  honored  and  respected  the  old  man  ; 
for  he  owned  many  ranches,  and  long  rows  of  houses  yielded 
him  monthly  tribute. 

There  was  indescribable  tenderness,  in  look  and  language, 
when  those  middle-aged  heirs  would  take  the  old  man's  hand, 
and  inquire  after  his  health.  Did  he  sleep  well  at  night  ?  and 
how  was  his  appetite  ?  The  whole  community  sympathized 
with  those  suffering  heirs,  and  wanted  to  share  their  joy,  or 
any  thing  else  that  would  come  to  them,  at  the  old  man's 
death.  The  almost  despairing  heirs  tried  all  manner  of  devices 
to  smooth  his  pathway  to  the  tomb,  but  all  in  vain  :  he  per- 
sisted in  taking  his  own  time.  Old  Vejez  betrayed,  as  yet,  few 
signs  of  decay  :  his  eye  was  bright,  and  his  step  as  plastic  as  of 
yore.  He  quaffed,  with  as  much  gusto  as  ever,  his  favorite 
beverage  of  whiskey  and  garlic,  and  seemed  still  prepared  to 
weather  many  a  storm.  Finally,  a  happy  thought  occurred  to 
the  heirs.  They  immediately  acted  on  it.  They  persuaded  the 
hale,  hearty  old  fellow  that  it  was  his  duty  to  visit  one  of  his 
plantations  on  the  Lower  Brazos  River.  He  had  never  been 
out  of  Western  Texas  since  he  arrived  there  from  the  Canary 


VEJEZ    RETURNING    TO    LIFE    IN    CATHEDRAL. 


BACK  FROM  THE   VALLEY  OF  THE  SHADOW.      189 

Islands.  His  relatives  told  him  that  the  change  would  do  him 
good.  He  said  he  did  not  need  change,  but  he  consented  to 
go.  The  heirs  chuckled  ;  and  one  of  them,  who  had  a  literary 
weakness,  prepared  to  manufacture  some  obituary  poetry.  The 
miasmatic  influences  from  the  unhealthy  bottom  of  the  Brazos 
River  got  into  the  old  man's  bones,  and  he  died.  When  his 
relatives  heard  of  his  death,  they  outwardly  assumed  the  garb 
of  mourning,  but  inwardly  they  rejoiced  exceedingly.  They 
became  very  popular  all  at  once,  and  were  called  "  Don  This  " 
and  "  Don  That,"  and  had  unlimited  credit  at  all  the  stores. 
They  walked  around,  decked  out  from  head  to  foot  in  black 
suits,  with  a  wealth  of  crape  on  their  hats,  and  a  sackcloth-and- 
ashes  kind  of  cast  in  their  eyes.  In  due  time  the  corpse  of 
Don  Vejez  was  conveyed  to  San  Antonio,  to  be  laid  away  in 
that  densely  populated  burial-place  that  he  had  been  expected 
to  inaugurate  just  a  century  before. 

And  now  behold  the  body,  as  it  lies  in  state  in  the  old  cathe- 
dral, surrounded  by  swinging  censers,  chanting  priests,  and 
mourning  friends,  while  above  the  subdued  murmur  of  solemn 
requiems  for  the  dead  can  be  heard  the  sobs  and  wails  of  the 
heart-broken  heirs.  Suddenly,  without  any  warning,  from  with- 
in the  coffin  is  heard  a  sound,  —  a  rustling  as  of  funereal  linen, 
—  and  old  Don  Vejez  sits  up  in  his  coffin,  and  demands  his  fa- 
vorite drink  of  whiskey  and  garlic. 

The  miasma  of  the  Brazos  brings  with  it  death,  but  the 
healthful  breeze  from  the  San  Antonio  River  brings  back  life 
again. 

It  required  a  company  of  soldiers  to  escort  the  feeble  but 
fully  restored  old  boy  to  his  home,  so  great  was  the  rage  of 
the  grief-stricken  heirs  and  the  over-sanguine  tradesmen,  who 
had  advanced  money  and  things. 

Of  course  there  was  no  unanimity  as  to  what  it  was  that 
worked  the  miracle.  The  priests  explained  it  to  their  own  sat- 
isfaction. They  themselves  were  the  guilty  parties,  whose 
fervent  prayers  had  brought  the  dead  to  life,  and  swindled  the 
heirs  of  Don  Vejez.  When  the  raging  heirs  came  around  with 
clubs  to  have  the  matter  explained,  the  wily  priests  said  that  it 
was  the  fervency  of  the  devotions,  and  the  sincerity  of  the 


190 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


grief  of  the  heirs,  that  had  caused  the  interposition  of  Divine 
Providence.  The  heirs  ultimately  laid  it  all  on  the  devil  and 
the  climate.  And  Don  Juan  Ignacio  Fuerte  Vejez  lived  many 
years  afterwards,  leaving  a  new  crop  of  heirs  discomfited  :  for, 
by  his  will,  his  wealth  of  lands  and  tenements  was  bequeathed 
to  the  church  of  Nuestra  Senora  de  Guadaloupe. 


THE  PROFANE  GENERAL. 


191 


CHAPTER    XV. 


SPENT  a  day  fishing  at  Eagle  Lake. 
It  would  be  more  correct  to  say 
that  the  doctor  spent  the  day 
trying  to  catch  fish,  while  I  en- 
joyed myself  under  the  shade 
of  a  tree,  in  company  with 
Gen.  McCarty,  and  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  a 
very  fine  lunch  furnished 
by  the  general.  The  bre- 
vet rank  of  old  McCarty  may  have  been  colonel.  As  I  did  not 
wish  to  take  any  risks,  and  on  the  principle  that  the  greater 
contains  the  less,  I  called  him  general.  He  was  an  old  veteran 
too  :  at  least,  I  think  he  was  —  he  told  me  some  extraordinary 
fish-stories.  g 

Gen.  McCarty  lives  at  Eagle  Lake.  He  is  noted  for  his  pro- 
fanity, and  his  knowledge  of  angling,  deer-hunting,  wild-turkey 
shooting,  and  kindred  sports.  The  general's  great  delight  is  to 
get  a  young  man  from  the  city  out  for  a  day's  hunting  or  fishing, 
and  then  to  perpetrate  antique  practical  jokes  at  the  expense  of 
the  stranger, — jokes  that  were  old  when  Nimrod  exploded  his 
first  cartridge,  and  that  depend  for  point  on  the  city  man's 
ignorance  of  the  details  and  technicalities  of  rural  sports. 

There  was  one  story,  in  which  a  verdant  Englishman  figured, 
that  the  general  seemed  to  enjoy  telling  very  much.  I  thought 
of  publishing  it  in  this  book  :  so  I  wrote  the  story  as  the  general 
told  it.  Then  I  saw  at  once  that  it  contained  too  many  cuss- 
words,  making  it  inconsistent  with  the  general  moral  tone  of 


192  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

the  book  :  so  I  scratched  out  all  the  profanity.  Then  I  found 
there  was  not  any  story  left.  In  this  connection,  I  would  state 
that  there  is  a  law  in  Texas  against  profane  swearing ;  that  the 
law  is  seldom,  if  ever,  enforced ;  and  that  the  oaths  uttered  by 
the  average  cowboy  are  the  most  foul-mouthed  and  gratuitously 
devilish  blasphemies  that  I  have  ever  heard — and  I  have  listened 
to  the  coster-monger  in  Seven  Dials,  the  fish-vender  in  Billings- 
gate, and  the  Bowery-boy  in  New  York. 

To  return  to  old  man  McCarty.  A  joke  was  once  played,  of 
which  he  was  the  principal  victim. 

From  that  part  of  Texas  where  Gen.  McCarty  lives,  most  of 
the  wild  animals  —  except  cowboys  and  an  occasional  wildcat  — 
have  retired  before  the  rapid  advance  of  civilization,  and  are 
only  to  be  found  in  the  western  canyons.  Once  in  a  long  time 
there  are  rumors  that  a  "  Mexican  painter  "  (panther)  has  been 
seen  in  some  of  the  neighboring  bottoms  ;  but  the  panther,  east 
of  the  Colorado,  is  about  as  mythical  as  the  sea-serpent.  Many, 
however,  believe  that  there  are  still  some  of  them  to  be  found 
in  Eastern  Texas. 

Two  young  men  living  near  Eagle  Lake  determined  to  have 
some  amusement  at  the  expense  of  their  credulous  neighbors. 
The  names  of  the  young  men  were  Joe  Goodson  and  Sim  Way- 
land.  They  could  both  imitate  the  panther's  voice.  Joe's  part 
was  to  cry  like  a  young  cub,  while  Sim,  who  had  a  deep  bass 
voice,  growled  in  imitation^  of  the  parent  animal.  They  first 
circulated  a  report  that  they  had  heard  a  panther  down  in  the 
bottom.  Then  they  went  out  next  night,  and  howled  and 
growled  in  the  edge  of  the  woods.  A  number  of  the  neighbors 
heard  the  sound,  and  circulated  the  news  next  morning ;  one 
man  averring  that  he  had  seen  the  "  painter,"  and  that  it  was 
as  big  as  a  calf.  Next  day  all  the  old  fire-arms  in  the  neighbor- 
hood were  loaded,  and  about  twenty  men  on  horseback  went  out 
to  trail  the  "  varmint."  Gen.  McCarty  was  chosen  leader  of 
the  party.  The  country  was  scoured  for  miles  around,  but  with- 
out result  other  than  the  alleged  discovery  of  the  panther's 
tracks  in  several  places. 

This  thing  went  on  for  about  a  week,  the  concert  being  re- 
peated every  night  at  different  points  in  the  neighborhood,  and 


A  JOKE    ON  THE   GENERAL.  193 

the  crowd  of  men  in  pursuit  increased  hourly.  Many  people 
asserted  that  they  had  glimpses  of  the  animal.  An  old  negro 
came  suddenly  on  Sim  at  night  in  the  woods,  as  he  was  deliver- 
ing himself  of  one  of  his  fearful  caterwauls.  Sim  was  astonished, 
and  ran  to  avoid  detection.  The  old  negro  shook  with  fright, 
so  that  his  gun  went  off,  and  he  fell  from  his  horse.  Next  day 
he  told  the  story  :  "  Gimmen,  fo'  God,  dat  ar  painter  was  nine 
feet  high,  an'  bigger'n  a  ox ;  an'  he  jest  skooted,  you  better  be- 
lieve. Scared  ?  No,  sah  !  dis  niggah  was  jest  a  bit  'fusticated 
at  fust ;  but  de  painter  —  Lordy,  how  he  was  scared  !  I  had  to 
be  mighty  peart  to  fire  one  bar'l  into  him,  and  he  went  off  on 
three  legs.  He  kivered  groun',  an'  don't  you  forgit  it." 

The  old  negro  was  not  a  veteran,  either ;  had  only  been  in  the 
State  a  few  years  ;  but  every  thing  develops  under  the  expansive 
influence  of  the  genial  climate  of  Texas. 

Gen.  McCarty  was  determined  to  kill  the  panther.  On  a 
certain  Tuesday  night  it  had  been  heard  in  the  creek  bottom 
below  the  cabin  of  an  old  negro  named  Mose  Patterson.  The 
general  reconnoitred  the  neighborhood  on  Wednesday,  and 
discovered  signs  that  were  conclusive  evidence  to  him  that  the 
panther  went  to  water  by  a  certain  trail  that  ran  close  to  the 
cabin.  That  night  he  stationed  himself  and  a  bottle  of  stimu- 
lant behind  a  fence,  close  to  the  trail.  The  hours  dragged 
along :  the  tree-toads  trilled  their  monotonous  chorus,  the  owls 
drowsily  hooted,  and  the  old  man  slept.  The  howl  of  the  pan- 
ther awoke  him.  He  saw  in  the  dim  starlight  a  huge  object 
moving  along  the  trail.  Bang  !  bang !  and  two  loads  of  buck- 
shot killed  Mose  Patterson's  old  work-ox.  It  cost  the  general 
twenty  dollars,  that  he  paid  Mose  for  the  ox,  and  as  much  more 
that  he  was  compelled  to  expend  in  drinks  for  the  crowd  next 
day,  when  the  news  of  his  successful  shot  got  abroad. 

When  any  one  wants  to  know  how  much  profanity  there  really 
is  in  the  old  man,  he  has  only  to  say,  "  Well,  general,  haven't 
shot  any  panthers  lately,  have  you  ? " 

The  Galveston,  Harrisburg,  and  San  Antonio  Railroad  Com- 
pany, whose  road  runs  from  Houston  to  San  Antonio,  being 
desirous  of  having  the  country  tributary  to  their  road  settled 
up,  sent  an  agent  named  Kingsbury  to  England,  to  represent 

'3 


194  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

the  advantages  that  South-western  Texas  offers  to  the  English 
farmer  who  is  desirous  of  emigrating.  Several  hundred  English 
families  have  been  induced  to  come  to  Texas,  during  the  last 
year  or  two,  by  the  representations  of  Dr.  Kingsbury.  Some 
of  these  people  are  doing  well ;  some  have  gone  back  to  Eng- 
land ;  and  the  rest  lie  around,  and  spend  their  leisure  in  writing 
letters  to  the  London  "Times"  and  "Telegraph,"  abusive  of 
Kingsbury  and  the  State  of  Texas. 

Almost  all  the  English  immigrants  came  to  Texas  with  the 
intention  of  farming.  Their  agricultural  education  having  been 
received  in  a  pin-factory,  dry-goods  store,  or  some  such  institu- 
tion, they  were  ill  fitted  to  wrestle  with  an  ox-team  or  a  grub- 
bing-hoe  on  a  Texas  prairie.  They  claimed  that  the  land  did  not 
suit  them,  and  that  it  did  not  fit  the  description  given  of  it  by 
Dr.  Kingsbury  in  London.  The  fact  is,  they  did  not  suit  the 
land ;  and  when  they  were  created  they  were  not  built  with  a 
view  to  being  utilized  in  agricultural  pursuits.  The  principal 
trouble  is,  not  that  the  soil  and  climate  are  not  all  they  were 
represented  to  be,  but  that,  when  the  barons  wrung  from  King 
John  the  Magna  Charta,  the  English  people  acquired  the  con- 
stitutional right  to  grumble.  From  that  day  until  the  present 
time,  whenever  an  Englishman  abroad  is  afflicted  with  any 
trouble  of  mind,  body,  or  estate,  he  flies  to  pen,  ink,  and  paper 
as  readily  as  .a  good  Catholic  does  to  holy  water  when  the  devil 
is  about,  and  writes  an  eloquent  and  indignant  letter  to  a  Lon- 
don paper,  stating  his  grievance,  and  hinting,  that,  if  his  govern- 
ment does  not  take  immediate  action,  he  shall  consider  its 
foreign  policy  a  failure.  It  does  not  make  any  particular  dif- 
ference what  the  grievance  is  —  sometimes  his  digestion  is 
injured,  or  his  boots  are  too  tight,  or  the  waiter  at  the  hotel  has 
not  addressed  him  by  his  proper  title.  At  all  events,  every 
Englishman  abroad  has  a  grievance,  and  it  would  be  positively 
cruel  to  deprive  him  of  it. 

An  Englishman  who  has  been  in  Texas  ten  days  will  impart, 
through  the  "Times,"  more  information  about  the  State  than 
the  oldest  inhabitant  ever  dreamed  of.  Nobody  can  claim  to 
know  any  thing  about  Texas  until  he  has  read  the  letter  of  a 
disgusted  English  immigrant.  One  of  these  exiles  has  lately 


POWERFUL  IMAGINATION.  195 

written  to  an  English  paper,  furnishing  the  British  public  with 
some  alleged  facts  about  Western  Texas,  that  contain  a  great 
amount  of  information  to  the  people  of  Texas,  who  would  other- 
wise have  no  facilities  for  obtaining  that  knowledge  of  the  soil, 
climate,  and  productions,  that  the  Englishman  obtains  during  a 
two-hundred-mile  trip  on  an  immigrant-car.  He  alleges  as  fol- 
lows :'  "  Southern  Texas  is  a  hot,  swampy  country,  famous  for 
mosquitoes  and  alligators."  His  allegations  do  not  amount  to 
much.  In  fact,  he  himself  is  not  much  of  an  allegator ;  for,  in 
a  few  lines  farther  on,  in  the  same  letter,  he  proceeds  to  saw 
off  his  own  legs  by  stating  that  "  Texas  has  a  very  dry  climate, 
where  drouths  prevail  to  a  dreadful  extent."  Probably  this 
English  farmer  never  attempted  to  raise  mosquitoes ;  for,  if  he 
had,  he  certainly  would  know  that  it  would  be  almost  as  hard 
to  raise  a  mosquito  or  an  alligator  in  "a  very  dry  climate, 
where  drouths  prevail  to  a  dreadful  extent,"  as  to  raise  an 
Englishman  without  any  brag  or  growl  in  him,  in  the  moist 
climate  of  the  British  Isles. 

One  sturdy  Briton  wrote  to  the  Galveston  "  News  "  lately, 
stating  that  Dr.  Kingsbury  should  be  recalled  from  England, 
because  he  had  maintained  an  oppressive  silence  regarding  the 
mosquito,  when  describing  the  wild  game  of  Texas  to  the 
credulous  British  public.  This  Briton's  letter  justified  the  im- 
putation, that,  after  gorging  himself  with  mince-pi^s  and  plum- 
pudding,  he  had  a  fearful  and  distorted  dream  of  the  conflict 
between  St.  George  and  the  dragon,  which  he  gave  to  the 
public  as  his  own  actual  experience  with  a  mosquito. 

The  Englishman  creates  and  minutely  describes  insects  that 
nobody  else  in  Texas  was  ever  able  to  see,  and  he  brings  to 
light  more  snakes  and  venomous  reptiles  with  his  pen  than  St. 
Patrick  is  said  to  have  driven  out  of  Ireland  with  his  crook. 
There  is  doubtless  a  great  deal  of  crookedness  in  both  ac- 
counts. 

The  mosquito  is  certainly  a  ferocious  beast,  and  well  calcu- 
lated to  blanch  the  cheek  of  a  burly  Briton ;  but  I  have  never 
heard  of  any  one  being  carried  away  by  a  mosquito,  although  I 
have  known  Englishmen  to  be  carried  away  by  their  own  pow- 
erful imaginations  and  prejudices. 


196  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

In  Texas  there  is  a  branch  of  the  same  signal-service  that 
furnishes  England  with  her  weather ;  and  the  officer  in  charge 
reports  as  follows  :  — 

RAINFALL   IN   TEXAS. 

Year.  Inches. 

1868 46.60 

1869 49-03 

l8;0 35-12 

1871 34-86 

1872 34.21 

1877 39-56 

1878 39.69 

This  gives  a  mean  yearly  rainfall  of  39.87  inches. 

Interested  parties  have  from  time  to  time  represented  that 
Western  Texas  was  full  of  wild  and  lawless  characters,  and 
was  a  part  of  the  country  where  rain  never  fell.  These  mis- 
representations have  done  much  to  retard  immigration.  In 
connection  with  this,  I  present  the  reader,  on  the  following 
page,  with  a  facsimile  of  an  envelope  covering  a  letter  received 
from  a  friend  of  mine. 

New  Philadelphia,  a  station  on  the  G.,  H.,  and  S.A.  Railroad, 
is  the  place  where  most  of  the  immigrants  have  been  sent  to. 
The  soil  at  New  Philadelphia  is  so  deep  that  I  am  afraid  to 
state  the  actual  depth,  for  fear  I  might  be  accused  of  writing 
in  the  interest  of  the  G.,  H.,  and  S.A.  Railroad.  I  have  had 
no  dealings  with  the  officials  of  the  road,  not  even  a  passing 
acquaintance  with  any  of  them.  I  am  compelled  to  state,  how- 
ever, that  along  that  line  of  road  an  energetic  man  would  find 
many  excellent  places  where  he  could  raise  a  disturbance  with 
a  plough,  that  would  result  in  a  very  productive  farm  ;  but 
the  soil  that  the  Englishman  is  looking  for  is  a  kind  that  will 
produce  two  crops  a  year  with  the  slightest  expenditure  of 
muscular  force  on  his  part,  —  the  tickle-it-with-a-hoe-laugh-with- 
a-harvest  sort  of  soil. 

There  are  at  New  Philadelphia,  and  at  other  points  along 
the  "  Sunset  Route,"  a  number  of  English  farmers  who  have 
purchased  land,  and  who  have  gone  to  work  in  earnest.  If 
they  only  continue  as  they  have  begun,  and  work  six  days  in 


ENGLISH  IMMIGRANTS. 


197 


the  week,  they  will  be  able  in  a  short  time  to  buy  more  land, 
and  have  money  to  their  credit  in  the  bank.  It  is,  however,  an 
undeniable 
fact,  that  most 
of  the  English 
immigrants 
are  remarka- 
ble for  their 
antipathy  t  o 
any  thing  sav- 
oring of  hard 
work ;  while 
on  the  other 
hand,  in  blas- 
pheming the 
State  of  Tex- 
as, and  Kings- 
bury,  the  al- 
leged author 
of  all  their 
woes,  they  dis- 
play an  untir- 
ing energy 
and  eloquence 
that  are  truly 
wonderful.  It 
is  difficult 
to  imagine 
the  sublime 
height  of  elo- 
quence they 
might  soar  to, 
if  they  only  had 
a  real  griev- 
ance as  a  text. 

It  is  quite  a  misfortune  to  the  human  race  that  our  first 
parents  were  not  a  couple  of  English  immigrants.  Satan  would 
have  had  a  nice  time  trying  to  infuse  enough  energy  into  them 


198 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


to  induce  them  to  steal  an  apple.  Probably  if  he  had  plucked 
the  forbidden  fruit,  pared  it  carefully,  and  presented  it  to  them 
on  a  china  plate,  they  might  have  sinned ;  but  as  for  them  tak- 
ing the  apple  off  the  tree  themselves,  without  a  step-ladder,  it 
would  have  been  out  of  the  question. 

Two  Englishmen  go  into  the  store  at  Weimar. 
"  Aw,  'ave  you  got  henny  Lea  &  Perrin's  Wor'ster  sauce  ? " 
"No:  don't  keep  it,  sir;  never  heard  of  it." 
"  Never  'card  of  it !     By  Jove,  what  a  blawsted  country ! " 

Turning  to  the  other  exile, 
"  'Any,  let's  go  back  to  hold 
Hengland." 

The  English  get  home- 
sick because  they  cannot  get 
gooseberries  and  'arf-and- 
'arf  and  Lea  &  Perrin's  sauce, 
growing  on  every  mesquite- 
tree  in  Texas.  They  forget 
to  give  any  credit  to  the 
watermelons,  the  figs,  and 
other  good  things  that  they 
get  in  Texas,  and  that  they 
could  not  raise,  even  in  a 
hothouse,  in  England. 

The  English  immigrant 
misses  the  shady  lanes,  the 
ivy-clad  ruins,  and  the  spires 
of  the  village  church  peep- 
ing through  the  trees  :  he  experiences  considerable  difficulty  in 
finding  these  things  on  the  prairie  near  New  Philadelphia. 
He  misses  all  of  them  very  much,  but  he  is  not  as  liable  to 
miss  his  meals  as  he  would  be  in  England.  There  is  at 
New  Philadelphia  no  shady  lane  with  violets  nestling  under 
the  hedgerows,  and  there  is  also  no  landlord  there  for  him 
to  call  "  master : "  so  it  is  no  wonder  he  feels  a  little  home- 
sick. 

During  our  stay  at  Eagle  Lake,  the  doctor  and  I  rode  over 
to  New  Philadelphia,  a  distance  of   eight  miles.     We  started 


'ARRY,    LET'S    GO    BACK   TO    HOLD    HENGLAND." 


RIDING  IN  A    CIRCLE.  199 

after  breakfast,  and  jogged  along  for  an  hour  or  two,  enjoying 
the  fresh  morning  air.  We  might  have  gone  seven  or  eight 
miles,  but  there  was  no  outward  sign  of  our  progress.  The 
landscape  never  changed.  The  same  dreary,  monotonous  ex- 
panse of  prairie  was  spread  out  on  either  hand.  The  distant 
clumps  of  trees  seemed  to  be  just  as  far  off  as  when  we  started, 
and  even  the  few  cattle  that  browsed  near  by  seemed  to  differ 
in  no  particular  from  those  we  had  seen  several  miles  back. 
Said  the  doctor,  who  had  been  in  a  brown  study  for  some  min- 
utes, "  Don't  this  remind  you  of  those  able-bodied  idiots  who 
walk  around  in  a  ring  for  half  the  gate-money  ?  What  I  mean 
is,  that  we  see  the  same  thing  all  the  time,  and  there  is  no  end 
to  it.  We  are  like  the  fellow  who  forgot  to  untie  his  boat,  and 
rowed  all  night,  to  find  in  the  morning  that  he  was  in  the  same 
spot  where  he  was  when  he  started." 

Little  did  the  doctor  think  how  near  he  came  to  handling 
the  literal  truth  when  he  made  that  remark. 

Another  hour,  and  still  no  apparent  change  in  the  scenery. 
We  came  to  a  depression  in  the  ground  called  a  hog-wallow, 
filled  with  stagnant  water.  We  stepped  aside  to  give  our 
horses  a  drink,  and  —  Great  Vasco  di  Gama,  circumnavigator 
of  the  world !  there  we  were  on  the  exact  spot  where  we  had 
stopped  to  water  our  horses  two  hours  before.  We  had  done 
what  inexperienced  travellers  have  often  done  on  the  prairies, — 
travelled  in  a  circle.  While  we  stood  dazed  with  the  absurdity 
of  the  situation,  a  negro  came  riding  along.  We  learned  from 
him  that  we  were  only  four  miles  from  where  we  had  started  in 
the  morning.  The  negro  was  going  to  New  Philadelphia,  and 
volunteered  to  guide  us.  After  travelling  several  miles,  houses 
began  to  appear  on  the  horizon  ;  and  finally  we  pulled  up  in 
front  of  the  railroad-depot,  behind  which  loomed  up  three  hay- 
stacks. To  the  left,  at  a  distance  of  half  a  mile,  appeared 
eight  or  ten  two-story  houses  precisely  alike,  at  equal  distances 
from  each  other,  and  built  in  a  straight  row.  About  four  miles 
off  on  the  prairie  appeared  a  few  trees,  and  in  the  near  distance 
a  solitary  cow  stood  in  a  meditative  attitude  chewing  her  cud. 
This  was  New  Philadelphia. 

Our  negro  guide  apologized  for  the  size  of  the  town.     He 


200  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

said,  "  It  looks  littler  dan  it  ar,  becaze  dar's  such  a  mighty 
sight  ob  land  lyin'  around  wid  no  houses  on  it." 

As  we  stood  on  the  platform  of  the  depot,  and  looked 
around,  we  noticed  upon  the  horizon  a  small  dark  spot.  It  in- 
creased in  size  as  we  watched  it.  It  was  approaching  us,  and 
growing  larger  as  it  came  nearer.  Soon  the  outlines  of  a  loco- 
motive could  be  discovered.  A  loud,  prolonged  whistle,  a  buzz- 
ing vibration  of  rails,  a  trembling  of  the  solid  earth,  sseesh  ! 
sseesh !  sseesh!  from  the  steam-pipes,  and  the  express-train 
anchors  in  front  of  the  depot.  Immediately  there  is  a  wild  rush 
of  excited  passengers :  they  abandon  the  train  with  reckless 
haste.  A  brass  band,  consisting  of  one  solitary  instrument 
called  a  gong,  welcomes  the  passengers.  They  rush  into  the 
house  in  front  of  which  the  band  plays.  Soon  they  begin  to 
come  out.  I  ask  the  first  one  who  comes  out,  wiping  his 
mouth,  what  he  got  in  there.  "Got  hungry,"  he  replies,  as 
he  jumps  on  the  car-platform.  Then  I  find  out,  by  a  sort  of 
inspiration,  that  this  is  the  station  where  the  passengers  dine. 

In  less  than  ten  minutes  from  the  time  the  train  arrived,  the 
banquet-hall  is  deserted,  and  the  last  reveller  has  filed  past  the 
proprietor,  who  stands  at  the  door  with  the  stern  devotion  to 
duty  of  a  Roman  sentinel,  and  takes  up  a  collection  from  each 
gorged  guest.  There  is  evidently  collusion  between  the  con- 
ductor and  the  colonel  in  charge  of  the  collation  ;  for,  if  the 
former  were  to  allow  the  passengers  ten  minutes  more,  they 
would  eat  up  all  the  provisions  on  the  premises,  and  begin  on 
the  haystacks. 

From  what  we  had  heard  and  read,  we  had  conceived  the 
idea,  that  when  the  English  immigrant  was  not  sighing,  and 
gazing  with  tear-dimmed  eye  in  the  direction  of  old  England, 
he  was  at  the  railway-station,  with  blood  in  his  eye  and  a  full- 
grown  club  in  his  hand,  waiting  for  the  chance  of  meeting  Dr. 
Kingsbury  on  his  return  from  England.  When  the  train  de- 
parted, we  noticed  a  florid-faced  man,  with  a  gun  on  his  shoulder, 
standing  on  the  platform.  The  doctor  suggested  that  perhaps 
he  was  an  English  delegate  deputed  to  watch  the  trains,  and 
destroy  any  one  looking  like  Dr.  Kingsbury  or  an  immigration- 
agent.  Said  the  doctor,  "  Let  us  talk  with  him." 


INTERVIEWING  AN  IMMIGRANT.  2OI 

We  sauntered  up ;  and  the  doctor  said,  "  My  friend,  you 
seem  as  if  the  country  agreed  with  you ;  but  don't  you  wish 
for  a  sight  of  the  verdant  meadows  of  old  England,  with  the 
murmuring  brooks  meandering  through  them  ?  Don't  you  long 
for  one  of  the  pleasant  evenings,  when,  after  the  day's  work 
was  over,  you  used  to  sit  under  your  cottage  eaves  in  the  twi- 
light hour,  while  the  trill  of  the  nightingale's  song  came  from 
the  neighboring  grove,  and  the  perfume  of  the  woodbine  filled 
the  air?  Don't  you  long  for  just  one  sight  of  your  far-away 
home?"  The  doctor  took  the  hiccough  at  this  point,  and 
paused  for  lack  of  wind.  The  man  said,  — 

"  The  divil  along !  for  it's  meself  that  doesn't  want  to  go 
back  to  the  ould  counthry  as  long  as  they  pay  a  dollar  and  siv- 
inty-five  cents  a  day  for  spikin'  ties." 

I  told  the  doctor  that  he  might  have  known  —  in  fact,  a  blind 
man  would  have  known  —  that  the  fellow  was  not  English. 
The  doctor  intimated  that  I  was  very  gifted  and  smart  in  find- 
ing out  things  after  somebody  told  me  of  them.  I  told  him 
that  I  did  not  claim  to  possess  any  more  penetration  in  such 
matters  than  my  neighbors,  but  that  although  we  had  made  a 
mistake  in  supposing  that  at  New  Philadelphia  we  would  find 
the  happy  English  peasantry  dancing  around  the  Maypole,  sing- 
ing their  merry  roundelays  on  the  village  green,  yet  still  I 
thought  we  would  yet  find  some  of  the  sons  of  Albion's  Isle 
without  going  far.  "Yonder,"  said  I,  "sits  one  of  them  on 
the  fence.  Don't  you  see,  by  his  sad,  mournful  look,  that  he  is 
an  English  yeoman  musing  over  distant  scenes,  and  contrast- 
ing the  corn-bread-and-coffee  diet  of  to-day  with  the  roast  beef, 
cheese,  and  tankard  of  ale,  of  the  past  ?  A  straw  may  show  how 
the  wind  blows ;  and  the  manner  in  which  that  man  chews  the 
straw,  that  you  observe  in  his  mouth,  shows  plainly  that  he  is  a 
Briton,  and,  as  a  Briton,  never,  never  will  become  acclimated." 

"Well,  try  what  you  can  make  out  of  him,"  said  the  doctor 
in  a  sneering  tone. 

"My  good  man,"  said  I,  as  we  approached  him,  "how  fares 
it  with  you  ?  Do  you  find  the  products,  institutions,  and  civili- 
zation of  this  free  country  compare  favorably  with  those  to  be 
found  under  a  monarchical  form  of  government?" 


2O2 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


He  stopped  dangling  his  legs,  spat  out  the  straw,  and  said, — 
"Ich  verstehe  Sie  nicht." 

The  doctor  and  I  went  over  to  the  hotel,  ate  some  dinner  in 
silence,  and  returned  to  Eagle  Lake ;  and,  since  then,  neither 


'ICH    VERSTEHE    SIE    NICHT." 


of  us  has  ventured  to  say  any  thing  to  the  other  about  English 
immigrants. 

There  is  a  man  up  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  who  has  been  putting 
what  he  calls  "simple  and  concise  questions"  to  the  San  An- 
tonio Immigration  Aid  Association.  The  questions  are  pub- 
lished in  the  "Texas  Sun."  He  asks  such  conundrums  as  the 
following :  — 

"  How  is  your  timber  ?  " 


"SIMPLE  AND   CONCISE"   ANSWERS.  203 

"  What  kind  of  houses  do  you  live  in  ? " 

"  What  is  the  character  of  your  soil  ? " 

"  Is  property  safe  with  you  ? " 

"  Is  your  society  good  ?" 

He  indulges  in  a  whole  column  of  such  personalities,  with 
interrogation-points  after  them. 

The  doctor  said  that  the  San  Antonio  I.  A.  A.  might  not 
have  time  to  impart  as  much  knowledge  as  the  man  in  Massa- 
chusetts was  evidently  suffering  for.  He  muttered  something 
about  Solomon  having  advised  how  such  persons  should  be 
answered,  and  took  a  sheet  of  foolscap,  and  flooded  Massachu- 
setts with  "  simple  and  concise  "  answers.  Then  the  man  in 
Massachusetts  wrote  back  on  a  postal-card,  and,  in  a  "  simple 
and  concise  "  manner,  said  that  he  (the  doctor)  was  a  "  blamed 
fool." 

The  following  are  some  of  the  man's  questions  and  the  doc- 
tor's answers:  — 

Q.     Is  water  plenty  ?  and  how  do  you  get  it  ? 

A.  Plenty.  We  mostly  get  ours  from  the  barkeeper  in  a 
separate  glass,  but  some  people  dip  it  up  out  of  the  creek  in 
a  bucket. 

Q.     How  are  your  titles  ? 

A.     All  sorts,  but  "colonel"  and  "judge"  in  the  majority. 

Q.     Are  the  people  intelligent  ? 

A.  Yes  :  every  one  of  them  claims  to  know  more  than  the 
governor  of  the  State. 

Q.     How  is  the  weather  ? 

A.  It  is  rather  plenty  at  present,  but  more  of  it  in  winter 
than  in  summer. 

If  the  doctor  does  not  quit  tampering  with  the  immigration 
business,  he  will  certainly  get  discouraged,  sooner  or  later,  to 
say  the  least  of  it. 

We  returned  to  Eagle  Lake  in  the  evening,  and  next  day 
left  the  place  where  we  had  spent  several  pleasant  days.  Dur- 
ing the  next  three  days  we  rode  fifty  miles  across  the  prairies, 
passing  occasionally  through  woods  and  across  creeks.  Now 
the  soil  would  be  sandy :  again  it  would  be  of  what  is  called 
the  "  black  waxy  "  sort.  Passing  solitary  farms  and  ranches, 


204  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

and  riding  through  the  towns  of  Columbus  and  Weimar,  we 
arrived  in  Schulenberg  in  the  evening. 

Schulenberg  is  a  small  town  on  the  railroad.  Almost  all  the 
inhabitants  are  Germans,  —  thrifty,  hard-working  people,  who 
attend  to  their  own  business  with  more  enthusiasm  than  the 
native  American  can  ever  be  accused  of  doing. 

They  have  a  mayor  and  a  board  of  aldermen  in  Schulenberg, 
and  city  ordinances  are  made  by  the  aldermen.  Those  that 
are  not  vetoed  by  the  mayor  are  broken  by  vagrant  hogs,  stray 
cows,  and  inebriated  cowboys.  There  is  a  newspaper  published 
in  Schulenberg.  Its  columns  are  devoted  to  the  mayor's  procla- 
mations, the  railroad  time-table,  patent-medicine  advertisements, 
and  reports  of  aldermanic  discussions  on  municipal  affairs. 
The  absorbing  topic  at  Schulenberg,  when  we  were  there,  was, 
"  Shall  we  continue  to  employ  our  present  efficient  police-force  ? " 

The  "  efficient  police-force  "  consisted  of  a  large  man,  whose 
clothes  had  apparently  been  made  for  a  smaller  policeman.  He 
was  armed  with  a  very  large  revolver.  His  trousers  did  not 
quite  reach  his  ankles :  they  had  evidently  been  pulled  before 
they  were  ripe. 

Schulenberg's  police-force  reminded  me  of  the  Texas  navy 
as  it  existed  in  the  first  days  of  the  Republic  of  Texas,  —  1836 
to  1838.  It  consisted  of  the  following  vessels  :  — 

Tons.      Guns. 

"  The  Invincible " 125  8 

"  The  Liberty " 60  4 

"The  Brutus" 125  8 

"The  Independence" 120  8 

Totals 430      28 

In  1836  "The  Liberty  "  was  sold  to  defray  her  expenses.  In 
the  fall  of  the  same  year  "The  Invincible"  and  "The  Brutus," 
after  being  repaired  in  New  York,  would  have  met  the  same 
fate  but  for  the  generosity  of  a  noble  friend  of  Texas,  —  Mr. 
Swartwout,  collector  of  customs  at  the  port  of  New  York, — 
who  paid  the  liabilities  of  the  two  vessels  out  of  his  own 
pocket.  Just  think  of  it !  Brace  up  your  mental  faculties,  and 
unlimber  your  bump  of  the  marvellous,  that  you  may  be  ena- 
bled to  grasp  the  thought.  Get  a  fan  and  cool  yourself  off 


THE   TEXAS  NAVY.  205 

before  you  attempt  to  realize  the  more  than  princely  munifi- 
cence of  the  generous  lunatic.  A  collector  of  customs  putting 
his  hand  into  his  own  pocket,  and  paying  for  the  repairs  of  one- 
half  the  navy  of  a  republic,  —  a  republic  larger  than  France! 
And  yet  there  is  not  an  unfinished  monument  erected  to  his 
memory,  not  even  a  Texas  railroad-depot  named  in  his  honor. 

It  is  absurdly  amusing  to  read  in  the  records  of  the  naval 
department  —  preserved  in  the  archives  at  Austin — the  high- 
sounding  orders  of  the  department.  The  style  and  tone  that 
those  eight-gun  sloops  assumed  must  have  been  appalling ;  and 
we  can  faintly  imagine  with  what  celerity  the  Mexican  war-ships 
abbreviated  their  cruise  in  the  Gulf,  and  left  the  borders  of 
Texas,  when  the  officer  in  charge  learned,  that,  "By  orders  from 
the  department,  Commander  H.  L.  Thompson  will  assume  com- 
mand of  'The  Invincible,'"  and  that  "  Commander  J.  D.  Boy- 
Ian,  in  'The  Brutus,' accompanied  by  the  honorable  secretary 
of  the  navy,  S.  Rhodes  Fisher,  will  cruise  in  the  Gulf." 

I  find  in  a  list  of  the  officers  of  the  Texas  navy  the  names  of 
three  commanders,  four  captains,  twenty-two  lieutenants,  eight 
surgeons,  four  pursers,  eight  midshipmen,  besides  five  officers 
of  the  marine-corps.  Wonder  where  the  common  sailors  found 
room  to  man  the  compass,  box  the  to'gallan'sl,  tackle  the  hard- 
tack, and  perform  other  necessary  nautical  manoeuvres,  when 
the  eight  surgeons  and  twenty-two  lieutenants  were  all  on  board  ! 

In  an  engagement  with  the  Mexican  brig-of-war  "  Liberta- 
dor,"  in  April,  1837,  "The  Independence "  was  captured,  and 
taken  to  Brazos  Santiago.  In  August,  1837,  "The  Invincible" 
went  to  pieces  off  Galveston  Island  in  a  squall.  In  the  same 
year,  during  the  equinoctial  gale,  "  The  Brutus  "  was  lost  in 
Galveston  Harbor ;  and  the  Republic  of  Texas  was  without  a 
navy.  That  magnificent  officer,  and  ex-officio  tar,  the  honorable 
the  secretary  of  the  navy,  was  out  of  a  situation ;  and  the 
commanders,  captains,  and  lieutenants  doubtless  went  back  to 
their  old  business,  and  once  more  applied  their  unofficial  ener- 
gies to  the  capture  of  the  unobtrusive  oyster. 

While  on  this  subject,  and  while  we  rest  a  day  in  the  quiet 
village  of  Schulenberg,  I  shall,  in  the  next  chapter,  give  the 
reader  a  brief  outline  of  the  history  of  Texas. 


2O6 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 


KNOWN  history  of  Texas  be- 
gins with  the  establishment 
of  missions  at  El  Paso  in 
the  year  1582.  These  mis- 
sions were  established  by 
the  Spanish,  Texas  being- 
then  claimed  by  the  king 
of  Spain.  For  some  time 
•  Texas  was  very  slow  in  set- 
tling up ;  which,  even  at  the  present  day,  is  a  leading  character- 
istic of  a  great  many  of  its  inhabitants.  The  Texas  missions 
were  under  the  supervision  of  monks  of  the  order  of  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi.  In  conquering  and  occupying  the  country 
for  the  alleged  promotion  of  Christianity,  the  Spaniards  used 
monks  and  soldiers.  The  monks  preached,  while  the  soldiers 
were  used  as  invitation  committees  to  wait  on  the  Indians,  and 
induce  them  to  come  to  meeting,  and  hear  the  good  news  of 
salvation.  This  plan  worked  very  well  indeed,  and  was  a  great 
improvement  on  the  old-fashioned  mode  recommended  and  car- 
ried into  practical  effect  by  St.  Paul.  Instead  of  suffering 
hunger  and  thirst  themselves,  the  monks  deputed  the  ungodly 
heathen  to  attend  to  that  part  of  the  religious  exercises.  It 
is  very  difficult  to  imagine  St.  Paul  prowling  around  Judaea, 
armed  with  a  shotgun  and  a  brace  of  pistols,  while  the  more 
able-bodied  apostles  were  acting  as  special  policemen  in  bring- 
ing sinners  to  hear  the  glad  gospel  tidings  ;  yet  that  must 


THE  MONK  AND   THE  SOLDIER. 


207 


have  been  about  the  idea  the  aborigines  acquired  of  the  found- 
ers of  the  religion  professed  by  the  carpet-baggers,  if  they 
judged  the  founders  by  their  successors.  Thus  the  uniting  of 
the  persuasive  eloquence  of  the  priest  with  the  more  forcible 
logic  of  the  bloodthirsty  Spanish  soldiers'  improved  fire-arms, 
was  very  effective  :  as  with  a  double-barrelled  shotgun,  what 


INDIOS    REDUCIDOS. 


escapes  one  barrel  is  very  likely  to  be  brought  down  by  the 
other. 

A  Spanish  mission  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centu- 
ries consisted  of  a  huge  stone  house  used  as  a  place  of  worship 
and  as  a  fortress  ;  houses  for  the  priests,  and  huts  for  the 
Indian  converts ;  several  Jesuit  fathers ;  a  bulldog ;  and  an  as- 


208 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


sortment  of  inquisitorial  instruments  of  torture,  used  in  the 
conversion  of  Indians  to  Christianity. 

Rev.  Mr.  Thrall,  in  his  "  History  of  Texas,"  says,  speaking 
of  these  missions,  —  • 

"Suitable  houses  were  built  for  the  priests,  and  rude  huts  for  the 
Indians.  The  fathers,  with  a  few  domestics  and  soldiers,  took  posses- 
sion ;  and,  by  persuasion  or  force,  Indians  were  induced  to  congregate 
in  the  neighborhood.  They  were  employed  in  taking  care  of  stock,  and 
cultivating  the  ground  to  supply  food.  In  return  for  the  comparatively 
light  labor,  the  Indians  received  religious  instruction,  food,  and  clothing. 
These  domesticated  Indians  were  called  '  Indios  reducidos.'  " 

"  Reduced  Indians  "  was  a  very  appropriate  name,  as  all  the 

names  given  by  the  gentle 
Spanish  pioneers  were.  When 
these  holy  men  failed  to  per- 
suade the  Indians  to  adopt 
their  religious  views,  they  put 
them  in  a  persuasive  instru- 
ment called  "  a  virgin."  This 
was  a  hollow  iron  overcoat, 
that  fitted  tightly  around 
every  part  of  a  man's  body, 
but  could  be  screwed  much 
tighter, — so  much  so,  as  to 
become  uncomfortable,  to  say 
the  least  of  it.  That  was 

how  the  Indians  were  reduced.  Nine  out  of  every  ten  of  those 
operated  on  were  converted  after  a  certain  number  of  turns  of 
the  screw :  the  other  was  usually  spoiled  in  the  process  of 
conversion,  and  was  useful  only  as  an  awful  example. 

Occasionally  an  Indian  would  have  doubts  and  misgivings  as 
to  whether  he  was  really  converted  or  not ;  then  the  priests 
would  tie  a  little  cord  around  the  doubter's  thumbs,  attach  the 
other  end  to  a  rafter  in  the  church  roof,  and  thus  hang  him 
up  until  light  broke  into  his  soul,  and  all  his  doubts  were  re- 
moved. Thus  did  these  good  fathers  labor,  from  the  rising  of 
the  sun  until  the  going  down  thereof,  and  raise  blisters  on  their 


CONVERTING    INDIANS    BY    MACHINERY. 


CHE-QUA-QUE-KO.  209 

hands  converting  the  heathen.     If  an  Indian  survived  being  con- 
verted, and  regained  sufficient  health  to  amuse  himself  digging 
irrigating  ditches,  he  was  permitted  to  enjoy  himself 
that  way.     He  was  even  encouraged  to  keep  up  this 
kind  of  revelry  by  the  priests  themselves,  or  by  the 
soldiers,  aided  by  long-handled  whips.     When   night 
came,  and   the   gangs   of   Indian   merry-makers   had 
become   cloyed   with   the    frivolity  of   throwing  dirt 
over  their  heads  with  short-handled  spades,  they  were 
locked  up  in  their  quarters,  so  that  in  the  morning 
they  might  be  on  hand  to  resume  their  round  of  dis- 
sipation.    Thus  they  whiled  the  happy  hours  away. 
The  historian  says,  "The  founders  of  these  missions 
were  noted  for  their  religious   zeal   and  enterprise." 
After  the  Indians  had  been  —  by  torture,  starvation,       a 
and  bad  treatment  —  so  effectually  reduced  that  they  A  D^BTER 
did  not  dare  to  scratch  their  heads  without  a  papal 
dispensation,  the  old  monks,  merely  to  keep  their  hands  in, 
would  once  in  a  while  celebrate  a  saint's   day  by   practising 
with  a  thumb-screw   on   some  old  Indian  who  was  too  feeble 
to  dig  ditches  or  chop  wood. 

There  is  said  to  be  among  the  archives  of  the  Franciscan 
order  at  Rome  the  record  of  the  trial  of  the  Apache  Indian 
Che-qua-que-ko  (Fish-out-of-the-water).  He  was  accused  of 
sneering  at  religion,  tried,  found  guilty,  and  burned  to  death 
at  Mission  Concepcion  in  the  year  1734.  He  had  been  placed 
in  charge  of  a  herd  of  sheep,  which  was  driven  up  to  the 
mission  every  night.  When  the  reverend  father,  Don  Domingo 
de  Dios,  who  was  the  superintendent  of  the  live-stock  depart- 
ment, counted  the  sheep,  he  found  that  one  was  missing,  and 
he  bitterly  upbraided  the  shepherd.  The  poor  Indian,  falling 
on  his  knees  before  the  haughty  prelate,  cried,  "  Take  it  out 
of  my  daily  wages,  most  reverend  father." 

"Varlet,  you  know  you  get  no  daily  wages,"  roared  the  en- 
raged ecclesiastic,  looking  around  for  a  barrel-stave. 

"  I  mean  deduct  it  from  the  stripes  I  receive  daily." 

This  was  trifling  with  sacred  things,  and  was  a  crime  of  the 
same  degree  of  darkness  as  blaspheming  the  holy  church  itself. 
14 


2  IO 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


His  reverence  laid  aside  the  barrel-stave,  it  being  unequal  to 
the  task  of  properly  emphasizing  his  feelings.  Poor  Che-qua- 
que-ko,  who  had  only  spoken  in  an  honest  and  innocent  way, 
and  who  had  no  more  sarcasm  in  him  than  a  hitching-post,  was 
turned  over  to  the  committee  on  thumb-screws  and  tombstones. 

There  were  two  kinds  of 
Indians, — those  who  staid 
about  the  missions,  and  al- 
lowed themselves  to  be  con- 
verted ;  and  those  who  staid 
up  in  the  mountains,  and 
scoffed  at  the  Spanish  plan 
of  salvation.  The  tame 
Indians  probably  did  what 
they  could,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, in  multiplying 
their  kind ;  but  they  could 
not  keep  up  with  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  army  of  martyrs 
that  was  going  on.  The 
poor  Indian  had  a  hard  time  of  it.  If  he  sneezed  without  first 
consulting  his  spiritual  adviser,  he  was  rebuked  with  a  trunk- 
strap.  If  it  did  not  rain  when  the  padre 's  corn  needed  moist- 
ure, the  priests  would  put  the  blame  on  the  Indians,  and  say, 
"  How  can  we  expect  to  be  blessed  with  growing  showers  while 
we  keep  such  a  set  of  worthless  savages  eating  the  bread  of 
idleness?  These  cursed  Indians  need  reducing." 

Then  they  would  reduce  them  to  the  lowest  numerators  and 
denominators,  as  it  were.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  In- 
dian's life  at  the  mission  was  not  one  of  unalloyed  pleasure.  If 
he  staid  in  the  mission,  he  was  liable  to  reduction,  or  to  be 
drafted  for  ditch-duty ;  and,  if  he  left  it,  the  Indians  from  the 
mountains  were  waiting  outside  to  fill  him  full  of  arrows,  or 
pry  him  open  with  a  hatchet.  It  may  be  observed,  that  in 
these  particulars  the  wild  Indian  was  almost  as  efficient  as  the 
Spanish  missionary ;  although,  unlike  the  latter,  he  did  not  ex- 
pect to  be  rewarded  for  his  deviltries  in  the  hereafter. 

All  the  missions  were  situated  on  or  near  some  river.     From 


PADRE,    INDIAN,    AND    BARREL-STAVE. 


OUR  LADY  OF  GUADALOUPE.  21 1 

the  river  the  irrigating-ditches  extended  over  large  areas,  and 
made  fertile  vast  quantities  of  land,  the  products  of  which  en- 
riched the  missions  and  those  connected  with  them.  As  the 
missions  grew  and  prospered,  immigrants  from  Mexico  and  Spain 
settled  around  them.  Some  of  them  'developed  into  presidios, 
and  one  or  two  into  cities  of  wealth,  and  centres  of  considerable 
commerce.  Between  the  years  1690  and  1715,  most  of  the 
missions  in  Texas  were  founded,  and  named  as  follows :  — 

Antonio  de  Valero,  Nuestra  Senora  de  Guadaloupe,  La  Puris- 
sima  Concepcion,  La  Espada,  San  Juan,  San  Jose,  San  Saba, 
the  Alamo.  Afterwards  were  founded  the  missions  at  Nacog- 
doches  and  that  of  Nuestra  Senora  de  Refugio  (Our  Lady  of 
Refuge).  Some  of  them  were  located  on  the  San  Antonio 
River,  within  a  few  miles  of  each  other  and  of  the  village  of 
San  Fernando  (now  known  as  the  city  of  San  Antonio).  A 
number  of  these  mission-buildings  have  disappeared.  Some  of 
them  —  notably  those  near  San  Antonio  —  are  still  in  an  excel- 
lent state  of  preservation. 

During  the  hundred  or  more  years  that  these  missions  flour- 
ished, a  controversy  as  to  the  ownership  of  Texas  was  kept  up 
by  the  kings  of  France  and  Spain,  and  occasionally  some  un- 
converted tribe  of  Indians  had.  something  to  say  about  it ;  but 
the  pious  and  zealous  monks  of  our  Lady  of  Guadaloupe,  and 
of  the  other  missions,  still  labored  among  the  Indians.  The 
good  work  went  on  ;  and  thousands  of  the  aborigines  were  added 
to  the  fold,  besides  hundreds  who  died  while  undergoing  the 
process  of  conversion. 

During  this  period  buffalo,  deer,  and  wild  horses  roamed  in 
countless  herds  over  the  broad  prairies  of  this  thinly  settled  ter- 
ritory. At  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  province 
had  an  established  population  of  about  six  thousand,  exclusive 
of  Indians.  Texas  was  then  connected  with  Mexico  under  the 
dominion  of  a  Spanish  viceroy.  About  this  time  the  Spanish 
showed  evidences  of  jealousy  toward  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  They  refused  to  allow  any  citizen  of  the  United  States 
to  enter  Spanish  territory,  unless  he  came  "  for  the  purpose  of 
scientific  exploration."  Their  edict  to  this  effect  did  much  to 
foster  scientific  studies  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  States 


212  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

bordering  on  Texas  :  at  least,  we  deduce  as  much  from  what 
we  have  learned  of  the  history  of  the  times. 

In  the  year  1800  Philip  Nolan,  and  eighteen  other  scientific 
horse-thieves,  came  into  Texas  from  Mississippi.  The  viceroy 
hearing  of  their  advent,  and  believing  that  they  were  more  ex- 
pert in  the  lassoing  of  mustangs  than  in  scientific  investiga- 
tions, had  them  arrested.  One  escaped :  the  others  were  carried 
in  chains  to  Mexico,  tried,  and  condemned  to  a  period  of  en- 
forced honesty  in  some  Mexican  prison.  As  they  were  never 
heard  of  again  by  any  of  their  friends  in  the  United  States,  it  is 
probable  that  the  Spanish  authorities  turned  them  over  to  some 
of  the  missions  for  conversion.  A  man  once  told  me  that  the 
old  Spaniards  loved  their  enemies  so  much  that  they  would 
rather  see  them  die  than  that  they  should  not  be  converted  to 
the  Catholic  faith. 

The  ancient  Spaniards  were  nothing  if  not  religious.  They 
would  rather  proselyte  an  Indian  than  do  any  thing  else.  Away 
back  in  1519,  Hernando  Cortez,  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  for 
the  conquest  of  Mexico,  invoked  on  his  enterprise  the  blessings 
of  his  patron  saint,  St.  Peter ;  and,  unfurling  a  banner,  he 
pointed  to  the  emblazoned  figure  of  a  crimson  cross,  and  the 
motto,  "  Friends,  let  us  follow  the  cross,  and  under  this  sign, 
if  we  have  faith,  we  shall  conquer." 

In  1520  Alvarado,  a  lieutenant  of  Cortez,  sacrificed  six 
hundred  Aztecs  at  the  city  of  Mexico,  and,  as  soon  as  he  got 
through  with  the  entertainment,  offered  up  a  Te  Deum. 

The  failure  of  the  Nolan  expedition  did  not  deter  other 
scientists  from  the  United  States  from  visiting  Texas.  Be- 
tween 1800  and  1820  many  learned  men  explored  its  villages 
and  settlements,  and,  probably  for  purposes  of  scientific  inves- 
tigation, carried  away  with  them  old  coins,  quaint  silver  orna- 
ments from  the  churches,  and  some  of  the  finest  specimens 
of  the  Spanish  mustang  they  could  obtain.  About  this  time 
science  became  distasteful  to  the  Spanish  inhabitants  of  Texas ; 
and  they  not  only  protested  against  the  trespass  of  their 
domains  by  the  people  of  the  United  States,  but  they  took 
up  arms  against  the  intruders.  Many  fierce  conflicts  ensued  ; 
sometimes  terminating  in  favor  of  the  Spanish,  sometimes 


AN  EMPRESARIO.  213 

resulting  in  a  triumph  for  science.  The  Americans  allied 
themselves  with  the  Mexican  Republicans,  and  fought  against 
the  Royalists.  Science  flourished  for  a  time,  but  about  1814 
there  came  reverses.  History  and  the  old  inhabitants  tell  me 
that  in  that  year,  out  of  eight  hundred  and  fifty  Americans 
who  took  part  in  the  battle  of  Medina,  only  ninety-five  were 
known  to  have  escaped  to  the  United  States. 

In  1 820  the  scientific  explorations,  and  the  disputes  attend- 
ing them,  had  almost  depopulated  Texas. 

The  Mexican  Government,  in  1821,  began  to  encourage  immi- 
gration to  Texas.  It  guaranteed  to  foreigners  of  good  moral 
character,  settling  in  Texas,  security  for  their  persons  and  prop- 
erty. It  gave  to  each  family  a  grant  of  one  league  (4,428  acres) 
and  one  labor  (177  acres)  of  land.  A  single  man  got  one-third 
of  a  league  :  this  was  increased  to  a  league  when  he  married. 
The  only  condition  required  of  the  colonist  was,  that  he  should 
occupy  and  cultivate  some  of  the  land  within  six  years,  that  he 
should  pay  for  the  stamps  on  the  deed,  and  that  he  should  be- 
come a  member  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

Here  we  see  the  piety  of  these  good  people,  and  their  love 
for  man's  salvation,  cropping  out  again.  "  Save  them  cheaply  if 
possible,  but  save  them  anyhow,"  was  their  motto.  These  men 
who  ruled  the  destinies  of  Texas  evidently  understood  human 
nature,  and  were  well  versed  in  the  peculiarities  of  national 
character.  Knowing  that  the  monkish  mode  of  converting  the 
Indian  would  not  be  successful  with  the  Anglo-American,  they 
"  persuaded  "  the  latter  with  a  league  and  a  labor  of  land,  — two 
ways  to  bring  about  the  same  result.  The  gringo  made  just  as 
good  a  Catholic  as  the  Indian.  The  conversion  was  as  deep  and 
lasting  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 

To  the  man  who  brought  a  colony  of  a  hundred  families  to 
Texas  was  granted  five  leagues  and  five  labors  of  land.  The 
title  of  the  land  cost  him  nothing ;  and  they  called  him  an 
empresario,  and  did  not  charge  him  any  thing  for  that  title 
either.  A  man's  wife  got  three  hundred  and  twenty  acres  ; 
each  child,  a  hundred  and  sixty  acres ;  and  for  each  slave  was 
allowed  eighty  acres.  Subsidies  of  land  were  given  to  the  pro- 
jectors of  all  beneficial  enterprises  tending  to  the  good  of  the 


214  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

country,  and  the  propagation  of  the  Most  Holy  Catholic  Faith. 
If  a  colonist  built  a  saw-mill,  the  government  deeded  him  half 
a  league  of  land  :  if  he  killed  a  heretic,  and  produced  the  Prot- 
estant ears  of  the  departed  in  proof  of  the  holy  deed,  he  got  a 
league  and  labor  of  land,  and  was  appointed  to  the  office  of 
alcalde.  These  were  flush  times  in  the  real-estate  business. 
Every  one  was  a  property-owner,  and  there  were  no  taxes  to 
pay.  A  colonist  might  not  have  a  shirt  on  his  back,  but  he  was 
sure  to  have  deeds  to  a  few  thousand  acres  of  land  in  some 
crevice  of  his  clothes.  Schoolboys  —  or  rather  boys  who  would 
have  been  schoolboys,  had  there  been  any  schools  in  Texas  — 
traded  their  one-hundred-and-sixty-acre  patents  for  second-hand 
Barlow  knives,  and  other  portable  property.  Speculative  boys 
were  in  the  habit  of  borrowing  half  a  dozen  marbles  as  a  starter 
in  a  projected  game,  and  of  putting  up  as  collateral  security  a 
land-grant  deed  with  a  big  red  seal  in  the  corner. 

Not  long  ago  an  old  pioneer,  who  had  lived  in  Texas  in  the 
days  of  the  early  colonists,  was  boasting  of  the  good  old  times. 
"  Why,  sir,"  said  he,  "  I  was  once  offered  a  league  of  land  for 
a  pair  of  old  boots." 

"  Didn't  you  take  it  ? "  said  the  party  he  was  talking  to. 

"No,  sir!  I  didn't." 

"No-account  land,  I  reckon?" 

"  Why,  bless  your  heart,  sir !  it  was  the  best  piece  of  land 
out-doors, — grass  five  feet  high,  a  clear  stream  of  water  running 
through  it,  and  an  undeveloped  silver-mine  in  one  corner." 

"  And  why  in  the  thunder  did  you  not  make  the  trade  ?  "  said 
the  other. 

"  Because,"  said  the  old  man  in  a  sad  and  regretful  tone  of 
voice  —  "  because  I  —  I  didn't  have  the  boots." 

In  those  days  no  one  was  too  poor  to  own  a  farm,  with  a  calf- 
pen  of  a  few  thousand  acres  back  of  it ;  and  yet  men  who 
could  walk  all  day  in  a  straight  line,  and  not  get  outside  the 
boundary  of  their  own  property,  did  not  probably  see  as  much 
money  in  a  year  as  would  purchase  a  lot  in  an  Eastern  cemetery. 
The  same  man  who  would  toil  for  a  week,  hauling  a  load  of 
freight  ninety  miles  with  an  ox-team,  for  a  ten-dollar  gold  piece, 
would  think  nothing  of  squandering  a  few  leagues  of  land  in 


ANCIENT  SPANISH  DOCUMENT.  215 

betting  on  a  cock-fight  next  Sunday  morning.  The  colonist 
who  owned  a  barrel  of  flour  and  a  coon-dog  was  richer,  and 
assumed  more  aristocratic  airs,  than  he  who  had  nothing  but 
five  leagues  and  labors  of  land.  There  was  very  little  money  in 
Texas.  Cattle  was  the  circulating-medium  of  the  country.  A 
year-old  steer  was  the  basis  of  calculation  in  all  matters  of  trade. 
The  following  translation  from  the  ancient  Spanish  records 
of  Texas,  found  among  the  archives  of  Bexar,  gives  the  market- 
values  of  yearling  bulls  :  — 

ROYAL  PRESIDIO  OF  SAN  ANTONIO  DE  BEXAR, 
Feb.  17,  1738. 

Considering  that  the  room  appropriated  at  the  time  of  the  erection 
of  this  presidio  for  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass, 
and  now  used  as  a  parish  church,  has  no  tabernacle,  font,  or  other  orna- 
ments requisite  for  decorum  of  the  ministrations  of  the  sacraments : 
therefore,  in  view  of  the  representation  to  the  effect  laid  before  me  by 
Padre  Don  Juan  Rezio  de  Leon,  curate,  vicar,  and  ecclesiastical  justice 
of  the  town  of  Fernando  (without  this  presidio),  I  have  resolved  jointly 
with  the  justice  and  town  council,  for  the  better  service  of  God,  the  pro- 
motion of  divine  worship,  and  public  convenience,  that  a  parish  church 
shall  be  erected  under  the  invocation  of  the  Virgin  Candelaria  and  our 
Lady  of  Guadaloupe,  for  whom  this  population  profess  a  peculiar  devotion. 

To  this  effect,  and  with  the  assistance  of  said  curate  and  ecclesiastical 
justice,  the  justice  and  council  of  this  town,  I  proceed  to  the  selection 
of  the  most  eligible  site  for  the  erection  of  said  church,  which  site  was 
marked  out  in  a  location  convenient  to  both  the  residents  in  the  town 
and  the  garrison  ;  and  there  being  no  other  resources  for  the  construction 
of  this  edifice  but  the  donations  that  may  be  offered  by  pious  souls  of 
both  localities,  I  hereby  ordain  that  the  justice  and  town  council  of  San 
Fernando  shall  appoint  to  collect  the  donations,  and  with  the  proceeds 
thereof  begin  and  superintend  the  work  of  construction,  two  trustees, 
uniting  in  their  persons  both  requisites  of  zeal  for  the  service  of  God, 
and  skill,  shall  faithfully  appropriate  the  revenue  they  may  obtain  to  the 
completion  of  our  holy  undertaking,  and  give  correct  account,  in  due 
form,  of  their  proceedings  to  the  justice  and  town  council. 

Thus  I,  Prudencio  de  Oribio  Barterra,  Governor  and  Captain-General 
of  the  province  of  Texas  and  New  Philipines,  have  decreed  and  signed, 
to  which  I  testify.  PRUDENCIO  DE  ORIBIO  BARTERRA. 

Signed  before  me, 
FRANCISCO  JOSEPH  DE  AROCHA. 


216  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


TOWN  OF  SAN  FERNANDO,  GOVERNMENT  OF  TEXAS  AND  NEW  PHILIPINES, 
the  igth  day  of  February,  1738. 

We,  the  justice  and  town  council,  —  of  which  are  members  Manuel  de 
Nis  and  Ignacio  Lorenzo  de  Armas  (both  ordinary  alcaldes),  and  the 
ayidores,  Juan  Leal  Goraz,  Juan  Curbelo,  Antonio  de  Los  Santos,  Juan 
Leal  Albarez,  Vicente  Albarez  Travieso,  and  Antonio  Rodriguez,  —  in 
pursuance  of  the  above  decree,  do  hereby  appoint  the  chief  alguazie  of 
this  town  (Vicente  Albarez  Travieso  and  Francisco  Joseph  de  Arocha) 
trustees  for  the  construction  of  a  parish  church,  under  the  invocation  of 
.the  Virgin  Candelaria  and  our  Lady  of  Guadaloupe,  which  construction 
is  to  be  completed  by  the  means  of  donations  offered  by  the  residents 
of  this  town  and  the  presidio  of  San  Antonio  de  Bexar,  on  a  site  already 
appointed.  Said  church  shall  be  thirty  varas  in  length,  and  six  in 
breadth,  including  vestry  and  baptismal  chapel :  its  principal  door  open- 
ing to  the  east,  and  pointing  on  the  plaza  of  this  town  ;  its  back  door,  to 
the  west,  and  fronting  on  the  plaza  of  the  presidio. 

The  following  amounts  were  received  by  the  aforesaid  trustees,  herein- 
before mentioned,  residents  of  said  town  and  the  presidio  of  San  Antonio, 
to  be  appropriated  to  the  erection  of  a  parish  church ;  to  wit  (here  follows 
the  names  and  amounts  subscribed),  — 

Don  Prudencio  Oribio  Barterra,  governor  and  captain-general  of 
this  province,  $200 ;  Don  Juan  Ruio  de  Leon,  curate,  vicar,  and  eccle- 
siastical justice,  $25  ;  Don  Joseph  de  Urutia,  captain  of  the  company 
of  said  presidio,  $  i  oo  ;  Don  Manuel  de  Nis,  ordinary  alcalde  of  first 
vote,  offered  10  cartloads  of  stones ;  Don  Ignacio  Lorenzo  de  Armas, 
ordinary  alcalde  of  second  vote,  $10;  Don  Juan  Leal  Goraz,  senior 
regidor,  offered  one  yearling  bull  worth  $4 ;  Don  Antonio  de  Los 
Santos,  regidor,  $10;  Don  Juan  Leal  Albarez,  regidor,  offered  10 
fanegas  of  corn  at  $2  each,  $20 ;  Don  Vicente  Albarez  Travieso,  first 
alguazie,  $20;  Don  Francisco  Joseph  de  Arocha,  $10;  Don  Antonio 
Rodriguez  Mederos,  collector  of  the  town  revenues,  offered  20  cartloads 
of  stones ;  Joseph  Leal  offered  2  fanegas  of  corn,  and  a  yearling  bull, 
worth  $8 ;  Patricio  Rodriguez,  $10 ;  Francisco  Delgado,  $10  ;  Joseph 
Antonio  Rodriguez,  $20 ;  Martin  Lorenzo  de  Armas  offered  one  year- 
ling bull,  $4  ;  Antonio  Ximenes  offered  one  yearling  bull,  $4  ;  Bernardo 
Joseph  offered  one  yearling  bull,  $6 ;  Francisco  Musquiz,  $6,  etc. 

It  would  seem,  from  other  statements  made  in  this  old  record, 
that  the  illustrious  and  most  excellent  viceroy  of  New  Spain, 
the  Marquis  de  Casa  Fuerte,  was  a  very  hard  man  to  collect  a 


THE  MARQUIS  DE   CASA  FUERTE. 


217 


subscription  from  ;  and  it  is  further  shown,  that  the  amounts 
subscribed  did  not  suffice  to  complete  the  "holy  undertaking." 
As  the  church  was  afterwards  finished,  and  is  now  out  of  debt, 
we  may  assume  that  the  trustees,  —  old  Vicente  Albarez  Tra- 
vieso  and  Francisco  Joseph  de  Arocha,  —  aided  and  abetted  by 
the  female  society  of  the  church  of  our  Lady  of  Guadaloupe, 
and  the  Candelaria  Mite  Society,  did,  by  means  of  the  lonely 
oyster  in  the  large  soup-plate,  entice  many  a  dollar  and  yearling 
bull  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  young  men  of  the  front  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century. 


218 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER     XVII. 


STEPHEN  F.  AUSTIN,  of  Mis- 
souri,  planted  the  first  colony 
in  Texas.  Between  1822  and 
1828  a  great  many  colonies 
were  established  by  orfier  par- 
ties. Austin's  colony,  how- 
ever, was  the  largest ;  and  he 
added  to  it  by  the  introduc- 
-~  tion  of  several  hundred  fami- 

lies brought  from  the  United  States,   under  subsequent  con- 
tracts with  the  Mexican  Government. 

Austin  stood  well  with  the  Mexicans.  Besides  being  an  em- 
presario,  he  had  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel  in  the  Mexican 
army,  and  held  the  office  of  supreme  judge.  He  had  probably 
become  a  zealous  Catholic,  and  may  have  conciliated  the  native 
Mexicans  by  presiding  at  their  Sunday  bull-fights.  In  no  other 
way  can  we  account  for  the  honors  and  titles  showered  upon 
him.  He  had  authority  from  the  Mexican  Government  to  call 
out  and  command  the  militia  for  the  preservation  of  peace  in 
case  of  an  emergency.  The  value  of  this  privilege  was  some- 
what marred  by  the  fact  that  there  was  no  militia  within  six 
hundred  and  fifty  miles,  and  that,  from  the  date  of  the  emer- 
gency, it  took  about  a  month  of  forced  marching  to  bring  the 
militia  to  the  emergency. 

Austin  was  almost   as   high   in   authority  as  the  governor  of 
the  province.     There  was,  however,  a  Mexican  officer  whose 
authority  threw  that  of  Austin   considerably  in   the  shade,  - 
totally  eclipsed  it.     This  Mexican  official  was  called  the  political 
chief.      He  was  a  sort  of  field-marshal,  lord  chancellor  ;  had 


THE  FIRST  CARPET-BAGGER.  219 

power  to  reverse  the  judge's  decision,  and  to  allow  the  judge  to 
resign  ;  could  imprison  citizens  at  will,  without  trial,  control 
the  militia,  and  was  only  subordinate  to  the  Governor  in  name. 
This  reservoir  of  power  received  from  the  government  the 
munificent  salary  of  eight  hundred  dollars  a  year.  He  held 
office  for  several  years,  and,  being  of  frugal  and  accumulative 
habits,  retired  from  his  position  some  half  a  million  dollars 
richer  than  when  he  entered.  This  was  unlike  what  a  political 
chief  would  do  in  these  modern  United  States  of  ours. 

From  1 830  to  1832  the  Mexican  authorities  had  been  showing 
a  disposition  to  curtail  the  civil  liberty  of  the  colonists.  Amer- 
icans were  seized  and  imprisoned  without  cause,  and  many  in- 
dignities were  heaped  upon  the  colonists,  who  were  too  weak 
in  numbers  to  resist  the  injustice  and  tyranny  ;  but  at  last  an 
insult  was  added  to  the  injury  the  colonists  had  already  impa- 
tiently borne,  that  caused  them  to  rebel  against  the  tyrannical 
yoke. 

It  seems  that  a  carpet-bagger  named  Bradburn,  who  was  an 
officer  in  the  Mexican  army,  and  stationed  at  the  small  town  of 
Liberty,  in  Eastern  Texas,  formed  himself  into  a  returning- 
board,  and  counted  out  a  man  named  Johnson,  who  claimed  to 
have  been  elected  alcalde.  Bradburn  also  disqualified  all  the 
members  of  the  Ayuntamiento  of  the  municipality  of  Liberty 
by  arresting  them,  and  putting  them  in  prison.  Then  he  put 
William  B.  Travis,  Patrick  C.  Jack,  Monroe  Edwards,  and  Sam- 
uel T.  Allen  in  a  safe  place,  where  they  could  not  send  cipher 
despatches  to  their  friends,  nor  in  any  way  influence  the  new 
election  that  he  held.  At  this  election  Bradburn  did  all  the 
voting  ;  and  the  result  was,  that  the  candidates  elected  did  not 
meet  with  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the  colonists.  The  friends  of 
the  imprisoned  official  were  given  no  chance  to  tamper  with 
the  returns  from  the  out-lying  precincts.  They  got  angry  about 
that,  and  then  they  tampered  with  the  Mexican  soldiers.  They 
did  it  in  the  modern  way  too,  — with  shotguns.  This  is  what 
the  historian  says  about  it:  — 

"  Two  of  Capt.  Johnson's  men  —  William  J.  Russell,  and  a  man  by  the 
name  of  Morrison  —  crawled  over  an  open  prairie  for  about  two  hundred 


22O 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


yards,  to  a  point  very  near  the  fort,  where  they  discovered  two  Mexican 
soldiers  standing  together  under  a  lone  tree  near  the  fort.  These  two 
men  approached  to  within  about  forty  yards  of  the  soldiers ;  and,  after 
taking  a  careful  aim,  both  fired,  —  Russell  with  a  long,  heavy  musket, 
charged  with  fifteen  buckshot ;  and  Morrison  with  a  rifle.  And  then  and 
there,  in  the  month  of  May,  1832,  the  germ  of  Texas  liberty  was  planted  : 
then  and  there  the  first  blood  was  spilled ;  and,  as  it  is  an  historical  fact, 
it  may  not  be  improper  to  state  that  W.  J.  Russell,  and  Morrison,  are 
entitled  to  whatever  credit  may  attach  to  this  act." 

So  we  see  that  the  germ  of  Texas  liberty  was  fifteen  buck- 
shot and  a  rifle  bullet,  and  that  the  germ  was  planted  in  the 


PLANTING    THE    GERM    OF    TEXAS    LIBERTY. 


bodies  of  two  unsuspecting  Mexicans,  "  standing  together  under 
a  lone  tree ; "  and  W.  J.  Russell  and Morrison  are  immor- 
tal, and  will  always  be  associated  in  history  with  the  germ  of 
Texas  liberty.  I  trust  they  will  receive,  as  the  historian  puts 
it,  "  all  the  credit  that  may  attach  to  this  act." 

The  causes  that  led  to  the  revolt  against  Mexican  tyranny 
are  fully  set  forth  in  the  Declaration  of  Texan  Independence, 
of  which  the  following  is  a  copy  :  — 


DECLARATION  OF  TEXAN  INDEPENDENCE.     221 


THE    DECLARATION    OF    INDEPENDENCE. 

MADE  BY  THE    DELEGATES    OF    THE    PEOPLE  OF    TEXAS,   IN    GENERAL   CON- 
VENTION, AT  WASHINGTON,  ON  MARCH   2,   1836. 

When  a  government  has  ceased  to  protect  the  lives,  liberty,  and  prop- 
erty of  the  people  from  whom  its  legitimate  powers  are  derived,  and  for 
the  advancement  of  whose  happiness  it  was  instituted,  and,  so  far  from 
being  a  guaranty  for  their  inestimable  and  inalienable  rights,  becomes 
an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  evil  rulers  for  their  oppression ;  when  the 
Federal  Republican  Constitution  of  their  country,  which  they  have  sworn 
to  support,  no  longer  has  a  substantial  existence,  and  the  whole  nature 
of  their  government  has  been  forcibly  changed,  without  their  consent, 
from  a  restricted  federative  republic  composed  of  sovereign  States,  to  a 
consolidated  central  military  despotism  in  which  every  interest  is  disre- 
garded but  that  of  the  army  and  the  priesthood  (both  the  eternal  ene- 
mies of  civil  liberty,  the  ever-ready  minions  of  power,  and  the  usual 
instruments  of  tyrants)  ;  when,  long  after  the  spirit  of  the  constitution 
has  departed,  moderation  is  at  length  so  far  lost  by  those  in  power  that 
even  the  semblance  of  freedom  is  removed,  and  the  forms  themselves  of 
the  constitution  discontinued,  and,  so  far  from  the  petitions  and  remon- 
strances being  regarded,  the  agents  who  bear  them  are  thrown  into  dun- 
geons, and  mercenary  armies  sent  forth  to  enforce  a  new  government 
upon  them  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet ;  — 

When,  in  consequence  of  such  acts  of  malfeasance  and  abduction 
on  the  part  of  the  government,  anarchy  prevails,  and  civil  society  is 
dissolved  into  its  original  elements  :  in  such  a  crisis,  the  first  law  of  nature 
—  the  right  of  self-preservation,  the  inherent  and  inalienable  right  of 
the  people  to  appeal  to  first  principles,  and  take  their  political  affairs 
into  their  own  hands,  in  extreme  cases  —  enjoins  it  as  a  right  toward 
themselves,  and  a  sacred  obligation  to  their  posterity,  to  abolish  such 
government,  and  create  another  in  its  stead,  calculated  to  rescue  them 
from  impending  dangers,  and  to  secure  their  welfare  and  happiness. 

Nations,  as  well  as  individuals,  are  amenable  for  their  acts  to  the 
public  opinion  of  mankind.  A  statement  of  a  part  of  our  grievances  is 
therefore  submitted  to  an  impartial  world  in  justification  of  the  hazardous 
but  unavoidable  step  now  taken,  of  severing  our  political  connection 
with  the  Mexican  people,  and  assuming  an  independent  attitude  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth. 

The  Mexican  Government,  by  its  colonization  laws,  invited  and  in- 
duced the  Anglo-American  population  of  Texas  to  colonize  its  wilder- 


222  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

ness  under  the  pledged  faith  of  a  written  constitution,  that  they  should 
continue  to  enjoy  that  constitutional  liberty  and  republican  government 
to  which  they  had  been  habituated  in  the  land  of  their  birth,  —  the 
United  States  of  America. 

In  this  expectation  they  have  been  cruelly  disappointed,  inasmuch  as 
the  Mexican  nation  has  acquiesced  in  the  late  changes  made  in  the 
government  by  Gen.  Antonio  Lopez  de  Santa  Anna,  who,  having  over- 
turned the  constitution  of  his  country,  now  offers  us  the  cruel  alternative, 
either  to  abandon  our  homes,  acquired  by  so  many  privations,  or  submit 
to  the  most  intolerable  of  all  tyranny,  the  combined  despotism  of  the 
sword  and  the  priesthood. 

It  has  sacrificed  our  welfare  to  the  State  of  Coahuila,  by  which  our 
interests  have  been  continually  depressed,  through  a  jealous  and  partial 
course  of  legislation,  carried  on  at  a  far  distant  seat  of  government,  by 
a  hostile  majority,  in  an  unknown  tongue  ;  and  this,  too,  notwithstanding 
we  have  petitioned  in  the  humblest  terms  for  the  establishment  of  a 
separate  State  Government,  and  have,  in  accordance  with  the  provisions 
of  the  national  constitution,  presented  to  the  General  Congress  a  re- 
publican constitution,  which  was,  without  a  just  cause,  contemptuously 
rejected. 

It  incarcerated  in  a  dungeon,  for  a  long  time,  one  of  our  citizens,  for 
no  other  cause  but  a  zealous  endeavor  to  procure  the  acceptance  of 
our  constitution,  and  the  establishment  of  a  State  Government. 

It  has  failed  and  refused  to  secure,  on  a  firm  basis,  the  right  of  trial 
by  jury,  —  the  palladium  of  civil  liberty,  and  the  only  safe  guaranty  for 
the  life,  liberty,  and  property  of  the  citizen. 

It  has  failed  to  establish  any  public  system  of  education,  although 
possessed  of  almost  boundless  resources  (the  public  domains),  and 
although  it  is  an  axiom  in  political  science,  that,  unless  a  people  are 
educated  and  enlightened,  it  is  idle  to  expect  the  continuance  of  civil 
liberty,  or  the  capacity  for  self-government. 

It  has  suffered  the  military  commandants  stationed  among  us  to 
exercise  arbitrary  acts  of  oppression  and  tyranny,  thus  trampling  upon 
the  most  sacred  rights  of  the  citizen,  and  rendering  the  military  superior 
to  the  civil  power. 

It  has  dissolved,  by  force  of  arms,  the  State  Congress  of  Coahuila 
and  Texas,  and  obliged  our  representatives  to  fly  for  their  lives  from  the 
seat  of  government,  thus  depriving  us  of  the  fundamental  political  right 
of  representation. 

It  has  demanded  the  surrender  of  a   number  of  our  citizens,  and 


DECLARATION  OF  TEXAS  INDEPENDENCE.     223 

ordered  military  detachments  to  seize  and  carry  them  into  the  interior 
for  trial,  in  contempt  of  the  civil  authorities,  and  in  defiance  of  the  laws 
and  the  constitution. 

It  has  made  piratical  attacks  on  our  commerce  by  commissioning 
foreign  desperadoes,  and  authorizing  them  to  seize  our  vessels,  and  con- 
vey the  property  of  our  citizens  to  far  distant  parts  for  confiscation. 

It  denies  us  the  right  of  worshipping  the  Almighty  according  to  the 
dictates  of  our  own  conscience,  by  the  support  of  a  national  religion, 
calculated  to  promote  the  temporal  interests  of  its  human  functionaries 
rather  than  the  glory  of  the  true  and  living  God. 

It  has  demanded  us  to  deliver  up  our  arms,  which  are  essential  to 
our  defence,  —  the  rightful  property  of  freemen,  and  formidable  only  to 
tyrannical  governments. 

It  has  invaded  our  country,  both  by  sea  and  by  land,  with  the  intent 
to  lay  waste  our  territory,  and  drive  us  from  our  homes,  and  has  now  a 
large  mercenary  army  advancing  to  carry  on  against  us  a  war  of  exter- 
mination. 

It  has,  through  its  emissaries,  incited  the  merciless  savage,  with  the 
tomahawk  and  scalping-knife,  to  massacre  the  inhabitants  of  our  defence- 
less frontiers. 

It  has  been,  during  the  whole  time  of  our  connection  with  it,  the 
contemptible  sport  and  victim  of  successive  military  revolutions,  and 
has  continually  exhibited  every  characteristic  of  a  weak,  corrupt,  and 
tyrannical  government. 

These  and  other  grievances  were  patiently  borne  by  the  people  of 
Texas,  until  they  reached  that  point  at  which  forbearance  ceases  to  be  a 
virtue.  We  then  took  up  arms  in  defence  of  the  national  constitution. 
We  appealed  to  our  Mexican  brethren  for  assistance.  Our  appeal  has 
been  made  in  vain.  Though  months  have  elapsed,  no  sympathetic  re- 
sponse has  yet  been  made  from  the  interior.  We  are  therefore  forced 
to  the  melancholy  conclusion,  that  the  Mexican  people  have  acquiesced 
in  the  destruction  of  their  liberty,  and  the  substitution  therefor  of  a  mili- 
tary government ;  that  they  are  unfit  to  be  free,  and  incapable  of  self- 
government. 

The  necessity  of  self-preservation,  therefore,  now  decrees  our  eternal 
political  separation. 

We  therefore,  the  delegates,  with  plenary  powers  of  the  people  of 
Texas,  in  solemn  convention  assembled,  appealing  to  a  candid  world  for 
the  necessities  of  our  condition,  do  hereby  resolve  and  declare  that  our 
political  connection  with  the  Mexican  nation  has  forever  ended,  and 


224  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

that  the  people  of  Texas  do  now  constitute  a  free,  sovereign,  and  inde- 
pendent republic,  and  are  fully  invested  with  all  the  rights  and  attributes 
which  properly  belong  to  independent  nations ;  and,  conscious  of  the 
rectitude  of  our  intentions,  we  fearlessly  and  confidently  commit  the 
issue  to  the  Supreme  Arbiter  of  the  destinies  of  nations. 

In  witness  whereof  we  have  hereunto  subscribed  our  names. 

RICHARD  ELLIS, 

President  and  Delegate  from  Red  River. 
H.  L.  KIMBLE,  Secretary. 

After  Russell,  with  his  "long,  heavy  musket,"  and  the  "man 
by  the  name  of  Morrison,"  with  his  rifle,  planted  the  germ  in 
the  two  Mexicans,  there  were  four  years  in  which  similar  agri- 
cultural pleasantries  were  indulged  in,  both  by  Texans  and 
Mexicans ;  and  much  planting  was  done  by  both  parties  before 
the  plant  of  liberty  was  fully  developed.  The  following  sta- 
tistics show  how  the  germs  were  cultivated  :  — 

MILITARY    EVENTS    OF    TEXAS. 

Battle  of  Nacogdoch.es,  Aug.  2,  1827  :  Texans  under  Col. 
Hayden  E.  Edwards,  with  a  force  of  250,  defeated  the  Mexicans 
under  Col.  Don  Je  de  las  Piedras,  with  350. 

Fort  of  Velasco,  commanded  by  Col.  Don  Domingo  Ugar- 
techea,  with  175  men,  taken  by  the  Texans  under  John  Austin, 
with  130  men,  June  26,  1832. 

In  June,  1835,  the  Texans  under  Col.  Travis  took  the  garri- 
son of  Anahuac  under  Capt.  Tenora. 

Rout  at  Gonzales,  of  a  detachment  of  cavalry  from  the 
Mexican  garrison  at  Bexar,  Oct.  I,  1835. 

Capture  of  Goliad,  under  Sandoval,  by  Capt.  Collingsworth, 
with  50  men,  Oct.  9,  1835. 

Battle  of  Concepcion,  near  Bexar :  450  Mexicans  defeated  by- 
Bowie  and  Fannin,  with  only  92  men. 

The  Grass  Fight,  near  Bexar :  400  Mexicans  retreated  from 
200  Texans,  Nov.  8,  1835. 

Attack  upon  San  Antonio  de  Bexar:  1,400  Mexicans  under 
Gen.  Cos  surrendered  to  the  Texans,  Dec.  10,  1835. 


MILITARY  EVENTS. 


225 


The  town  of  Bexar  taken  by  the  Mexicans,  and  the  Texans 
retired  into  the  Alamo,  Feb.  21,  1836. 

Retreat  of  Gen.  Houston  from  Gonzales,  March  10,  1836. 

Assault  of  the  Alamo  by  Santa  Anna :  garrison  put  to  the 
sword,  March  6,  1836. 

Mexicans  defeated  in  the  first  fight  of  the  "Mission  del 
Refugio  "  by  the  Texans  under  Capt.  King,  March  9,  1836. 

Expedition  against  Matamoras,  under  Johnson  Grant,  etc. : 
proved  an  entire  failure,  January,  1836. 

Second  fight  of  "  Mission  del  Refugio : "  Col.  Ward  attacked 
and  drove  back  a  large  body  of  Mexicans,  March  10,  1836. 

Ward's  retreat  from  the  Refugio,  March  n,  1836;  sur- 
rendered, 24th  ;  massacred  on  the  28th. 

Defeat  of  Fannin,  with  415  men,  and  all  massacred  by  the 
Mexicans,  March  19,  1836. 

San  Felipe  de  Austin  burned  by  the  Texans,  March  31, 
1836. 

Harrisburg  burned  by  the  Mexicans,  April  20,  1836. 

New  Washington  burned  by  the  Mexicans,  April  20,  1836. 

Battle  of  San  Jacinto :  750  Texans  under  Gen.  Houston  de- 
feated the  Mexicans  under  Santa  Anna,  with  about  1,600  men, 
killing  upwards  of  750,  and  taking  the  remainder,  with  Santa 
Anna  himself,  prisoners,  April  21,  1836. 

Retreat  of  the  Mexicans  beyond  the  frontier  of  Texas,  April, 
24,  1836. 

It  will  be  seen,  by  the  figures  given  above,  that  the  struggle 
ended  with  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto,  April  21,  1836.  When 
Santa  Anna  was  taken  prisoner,  and  wanted  to  purchase  his 
freedom,  he  said  to  Gen.  Sam  Houston,  "You  can  afford  to 
be  generous  :  you  have  conquered  the  Napoleon  of  the  West." 

At  least  Santa  Anna  is  said  to  have  unburdened  himself  of 
those  egotistical  words  ;  but  then,  this  is  only  history,  and  I 
cannot,  therefore,  endanger  my  reputation  for  veracity  by 
vouching  for  its  truth.  We  do  not  know,  nowadays,  how  much 
of  the  "  truth  of  history  "  to  believe ;  and  probably  it  may  be 
questioned  whether  Santa  Anna  did,  or  did  not,  make  use  of  the 
words  quoted,  as  the  authorship  of  the  memorable  saying  at- 
15 


226  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

tributed  to  Louis  XIV.  —  "  The  State  !  I  am  the  State  !  "  —  is 
questioned. 

In  1836  Texas  became  a  republic.  On  the  23d  of  October 
of  that  year,  Gen.  Sam  Houston  was  installed  president  of  the 
republic.  The  population  of  Texas  was  then  estimated  at 
52,670, — Anglo-Americans,  30,000 ;  Mexicans,  3,470 ;  Indians, 
14,200;  negroes,  5,000. 

In  1836  Texas  began  to  keep  house,  and  for  about  nine  years 
she  did  business  on  her  own  account  as  a  republic.  She  en- 
joyed the  privilege  of  getting  into  debt,  and  the  gorgeousness 
of  having  foreign  ministers  dine  with  her.  She  had  a  numer- 
ous retinue  of  officials ;  and  she  imitated  other  and  richer  repub- 
lics, even  in  the  keeping  of  a  navy,  which  has  been  alluded  to 
in  a  previous  chapter. 

The  sister  republic  whose  lot  joined  hers  on  the  south  was 
on  bad  terms  with  her  during  the  greater  part  of  this  time,  and 
annoyed  her  very  much  by  jawing  at  her  over  the  back-fence, 
and  sometimes  even  trespassing  on  her  property.  Becoming 
tired  of  this,  and  of  the  expense  and  responsibility  connected 
with  her  establishment,  she  made  propositions  to  her  neighbor 
on  the  north,  the  result  of  which  was,  that,  on  the  igth  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1846,  she  discharged  all  her  servants,  and  went  to  board 
with  the  United  States ;  or,  as  the  historian  expresses  it,  "  an- 
nexation was  consummated,  and  the  Lone  Star,  the  emblem  of 
the  youngest  born  of  republics,  was  merged  in  the  constellation 
of  the  American  Union." 

Whe-e-e !  there,  now !  I  hope  the  reader  knows  all  he 
wants  to  know  of  Texas  history,  for  I  do  not  care  to  write  any 
more  on  that  subject.  Historical  writing  is  too  severe  a  strain 
on  the  imagination. 

When  we  left  Schulenberg,  we  diverged  from  our  direct 
western  course  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  the  town  of  Cuero, 

which  lay  some  miles  south  of  our  line  of  travel.  We 

were  invited  to  spend  a  few  days  at  Cuero  by  a  genial  English- 
man named  Capt.  Delane,  who  had  travelled  with  us  during 
our  ride  from  Eagle  Lake  to  Schulenberg,  and  who  promised 
to  show  us  a  town  where  more  people  had  died  with  their 
boots  on  than  in  any  other  town  in  Texas.  But  it  was  not 


A  BAD  SETTLEMENT.  227 

to  see  men  die  with  their  boots  on  that  we  went  to  Cuero  : 
it  was  for  a  different  reason.  Capt.  Delane,  who  was  an  ex- 
officer  of  her  Majesty's  Third  Buffs,  promised  us  some  sport. 
He  had  just  received  from  England  two  greyhounds,  that  he 
intended  to  use  in  coursing  the  mule-eared  or  jackass  rabbit. 
He  had  not  yet  tried  the  dogs ;  but,  on  his  return  home,  he  said 
he  intended  to  invite  his  neighbors  to  participate  in  a  day's 
coursing.  The  captain  explained  to  us  what  a  very  popular 
sport  coursing  is  in  England,  and  how  the  Waterloo  is  in 
coursing  what  the  Derby  is  in  horse-racing,  —  the  former  being 
almost  as  great  a  sporting-event  as  the  latter.  He  said  the 
Texas  jack-rabbit  was  about  the  same  size  as  the  English  hare, 
and  apparently  ran  at  about  the  same  rate  of  speed.  He  was 
enthusiastic  on  the  subject  of  the  exploits  of  certain  celebrated 
greyhounds ;  told  us  of  their  victories,  and  gave  us  the  pedi- 
grees of  Bab-at-the  Bowster,  Master  McGrath,  Don't-be-Head- 
strong,  and  many  other  noted  dogs,  and  promised  us  unlimited 
sport,  and  much  insight  into  the  laws  and  rules  governing 
coursing. 

On  our  way  to  Cuero  we  passed  through  a  settlement  the 
name  of  which  I  have  forgotten.  I  may  call  it  Smithville. 
The  soil  was  poor  and  sandy;  the  crops  were  of  a  weak  and 
puny  character ;  the  farms  were  miserably  cultivated ;  the 
inhabitants  appeared,  as  far  as  their  cultivation  was  concerned, 
to  be  in  harmony  with  the  farms,  —  most  of  them  were  but 
poorly  educated,  and  many  could  not  even  read  —  their  neigh- 
bors' brands  on  their  neighbors'  cattle.  This  often  caused 
them  to  make  mistakes  when  they  went  out  to  kill  a  steer  for 
beef.  They  were,  however,  invariably  willing  to  make  amends 
for  such  errors  by  killing  the  neighbor  when  he  came  over  to 
chide  them  for  their  ignorance.  These  peculiarities,  and  some 
cases  of  mistaken  identity  in  the  matter  of  horses  traced  to 
them,  caused  the  people  of  this  settlement  to  be  looked  upon 
as  unfitted  for  high  places  in  the  church.  In  fact,  it  was  a  bad 
settlement, — the  worst  I  ever  heard  of  except  the  one  made 
by  Fritz  von  Schwindelmeyer  down  at  Houston.  Fritz  com- 
promised at  twenty  cents  on  the  dollar,  and  settled  that  by 
burning  his  store,  and  turning  over  to  his  creditors  half  a 


228 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


gross  of  pretzels  and  a  grindstone,  that  were  rescued  from  the 
flames. 

But  to  return  to  the  Smithvillians.  They  were  without  a 
church,  but  they  were  not  without  religous  aspirations.  The 
neighboring  settlement  of  Jonesboro  had  lately  enjoyed  a 
clerical  scandal  and  a  funeral, — the  funeral  of  poor  Sam  Jones, 
gentle  Samuel,  who  never  injured  any  one,  and  who  died  from 
the  effects  of  casting  reflections  on  the  an- 
cestry of  R.  J.  Hunter,  alias  Cock-eyed  Bob. 
If  the  Jonesboro  people,  who  were  not 
any  better  than  they  should  be,  could  af- 
ford these  evidences  of  modern  Christianity, 
why  should  not  the  Smithvillians  have  "a 
preaching  "  ?  Thus  they  argued  ;  and  the 
result  was,  that  they  invited  the  Rev.  Sam- 
uel Smallwood  to  name  a  day  on  which  he 
could  conveniently  come  over  and  preach  to 
them,  promising,  on  their  part,  that  they 

\^«i  HS^         would  shut  up  the  store,  make  the  appoint- 
1v  P  ment  generally  known,  and  give  him  a  full 

-"  house.     They  selected  Dr.  Saunders's  gin- 

house  as  the  place  where  the  religious  exer- 
cises were  to  be  held.    The  Rev.  Mr.  Small- 
wood  replied  verbally  through  Major  Sher- 
wood,  promising  to  preach,   and    appropri- 
ating the  following  Wednesday,  at  one  P.M. 
At  the  appointed  time  the  parson  appeared  at  the  gin-house, 
and  waited  there  for  about  ah  hour ;   but  nobody  came.     He 
walked  up  to  the  store,  and  inquired  why  the  people  had  not 
turned  out,  as  promised. 

"Why,  parson,"  said  the  storekeeper,  "  we  didn't  know  you 
was  a-coming  :  you  never  sent  us  word." 

"Yes,  I  did!  I  sent  the  appointment  by  Major  Sherwood, 
and  it  was  for  to-day  at  one  o'clock." 

"Ah  !  that  accounts  for  it,"  said  the  storekeeper.  "You  see, 
parson,  the  major  was  put  out  a  good  deal  the  evening  of  the 
day  he  saw  you  ;  and  —  but  here  he  comes,  and  he  will  explain 
himself." 


THE    PARSON. 


THE    WRONG  BOTTLE.  229 

"  Good-morning,  major ! " 

"  Morning,  morning,  parson  !     Glad  to  see  you,  sir ! " 

"  Major,  why  did  you  not  give  out  the  appointment  I  sent  by 
you  last  week  ? " 

"Well,  I  declare,  parson,  I'm  dog  —  I  mean  I'm  everlastingly 
sorry ;  but  I  couldn't  help  it,  sir  —  couldn't  help  it.  It  was  a 
da  —  a  shame,  sir ;  but  I  met  with  an  accident  the  evening  I 
saw  you,  and  the  appointment  went  to  the  de  —  went  out  of 
my  head,  I  should  say  —  you  must  excuse  me,  parson,  if  I 
seem  sort  o'  cramped  in  my  language.  You  know,  sir,  I  never 
touch  whiskey,  not  even  a  drop ;  leastwise,  very  seldom." 

Noticing  the  preacher's  gaze  fastened  on  his  rubicund 
countenance,  he  continued,  — 

"  Neuralgia,  sir,  neuralgia.  It  sometimes  gives  me  the  d  — 
great  pain,  indeed.  Did  you  ever  have  the  neuralgia,  sir? " 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Smallwood  intimated  that  he  never  had 
suffered  from  that  particular  kind. 

"  Some  people  say  that  I  drink  :  it  is  false,  sir.  I  never  use 
whiskey  except  when  I  am  unwell,  and  I  suffer  from  this  cussed 
neuralgia  all  the  time.  After  I  got  home  on  the  evening  I  saw 
you  in  town,  Dr.  Saunders  and  Bud  Bennett  sent  up  for  me  to 
come  down  to  the  store  and  join  them  in  a  social  glass.  At 

first  I  didn't  think  I  would  go ;  but,          ..» ====    _j 

as  I  had  a  sharp  touch  of  the  neural- 
gia that  evening,  I  concluded  to  go 
down  and  take  just  one  snifter,  to 
see  if  it  might  not  help  me.  When 
I  got  down,  the  doctor,  who  always 
makes  himself  too  da  —  too  familiar 

in  this  store,  according  to  my  notion,  THE  WRONG  BOTTLIL 

was  behind  the  counter  handing  down 

a  bottle  of  bitters.  None  of  us  had  ever  tasted  it  before.  It 
was  a  new  kind,  and  the  doctor  said  he  wanted  to  try  if  it 
wasn't  good  for  the  chest.  He  filled  out  three  glasses  ;  and, 
after  a  '  Here's  to  you ! '  we  all  three  emptied  them  at  the  same 
time. 

"  '  Devilish  queer-tasting  bitters  ! '  said  Dr.  Saunders,  screwing 
up  his  mouth  as  if  he  had  stuck  his  teeth  in  a  green  persim- 


230 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


mon.  'That's  the  damnedest  bitters  I  ever  tasted,'  said  Bud  — 
excuse  me,  sir,  but  Bennett  always  does  swear :  I  have  spoken 
to  him  about  it  —  and  Bud,  he  smelled  of  his  glass,  and  shook 
his  head.  I  felt  a  sort  of  drug-store  taste  in  my  mouth  as  the 
stuff  went  down,  and  my  throat  began  to  burn.  Sez  the  doc- 
tor, 'Take  a  hair  of  the  dog,'  sez  he.  'Maybe  it  won't  taste 
so  bad  when  we  get  used  to  it.'  Before  I  had  fairly  got  the 
second  drink  down,  I  knew  I  was  poisoned :  my  tongue  had 
swelled  so  I  could  hardly  speak,  and  sparks  were  flying  before 

my  eyes.  I  knew  my  only 
hope  was  my  wife's  rattle- 
snake remedy ;  and  I  broke 
for  the  door,  and  lit  out  for 
home  as  fast  as  I  could  run. 
By  the  time  I  got  home  my 
whole  inside  was  on  fire,  my 
eyes  were  popping  out  of 
my  head,  there  was  froth 
at  my  lips,  and  my  tongue 
filled  my  mouth  so  I  couldn't 
speak.  I  just  threw  myself 
on  the  bed,  and  pointed  to 
the  shelf  where  the  rattle- 
snake remedy  was  kept. 
Betty  —  that's  my  wife  — 


saw  at  a  glance  what  was 
the  matter,  or  thought  she 
did,  and  ran  for  the  antidote. 
It  is  made  of  castor-oil,  whiskey,  and  spirits  of  turpentine ;  and 
she  dosed  me  with  it,  holding  the  bottle  upside  down  in  my 
mouth  with  one  hand,  while  with  the  other  she  pulled  my 
clothes  off,  looking  for  the  place  where  the  snake  bit  me.  Oh, 
you  needn't  laugh  !  you  wouldn't  have  laughed  much  if  you 
had  been  in  my  place.  I  couldn't  explain  to  Betty,  on  account 
of  the  size  of  my  tongue,  and  the  way  I  was  choked  with  the 
infer  —  the  nasty  remedy.  By  the  time  she  had  got  me  stark 
naked,  and  was  standing  over  me  with  a  red-hot  smoothing- 
iron,  intending  to  laundry  the  place  where  the  snake  had  bit 


•I    JUST    THREW    MYSELF    ON    THE    BED." 


CROSSING   THE  N A  VI DAD. 


231 


me  as  soon  as  she  found  it,  the  wife  of  Bud  Bennett  came  run- 
ning in,  calling  for  help.  She  gasped  out  that  Bud  had  come 
home  clean  crazy,  and  gnashing  his  teeth,  and  that  she  had 
come  over  here  for  protection,  leaving  Bud  drinking  buttermilk 
by  the  gallon,  and  frothing  at  the  mouth.  While  she  was  talk- 
ing, and  I  was  trying  to  get  the  quilts  over  my  bare  legs,  the 
nigger  that  Mrs.  Bennett  had  sent  to  tell  Dr.  Saunders  to  come 
over  quickly,  as  her  husband  was  poisoned,  came  tearing  in, 
and  said  that  Dr.  Saunders  had  'done  gone  crazy,'  and  had  sent 
his  compliments,  and  to  say  to  go  to  the  devil ;  that  he  was 
'done  poisoned,  and  had  got  a  fit  himself.'  Now,  parson,  that 
bloody  fool  —  excuse  me  again,  sir  —  had  gone  and  handed 
down  a  bottle  of  Mustang  Liniment,  instead  of  a  bottle  of 
bitters ;  and,  considering  the  circumstances  related,  can  you 
blame  me  for  failing  once  in  my  religious  duty  by  forgetting 
to  give  out  your  appointment  ? " 

We  crossed  the  Navidad  on  a  small  ferry-boat,  —  one  of  the 
primitive  kind,  swinging  by  two  pulleys  to  a  rope,  the  ends  of 
which  were  made  fast  to  a  stump  on  each  side  of  the  stream. 
The  current  was  swift,  and  our  progress  necessarily  slow.  We 


'ALWAYS    READY   TO    'BLIGE   A    GEMMAN." 


volunteered  to  help  the  ferryman  ;  and  each  of  us  took  hold  of 
the  rope  at  the  prow,  and  walked  towards  the  stern,  thus  pro- 
pelling the  boat  towards  the  other  side  of  the  river. 

An  old  negro  stood  in  the  sand  on  the  farther  bank  of  the 
When  we  were  in  the  middle,  the  doctor  hailed  him :  — 


river. 


232  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  Uncle  !  can't  you  give  us  a  hand,  and  help  us  across  ? " 

"  Yes,  boss !  to  be  sure.  I's  always  ready  to  'blige  a  gem- 
man."  And  the  old  fellow  stuck  his  heels  in  the  sand,  and  lay 
back  on  the  rope,  pulling  with  all  his  strength,  as  if  he  wanted 
to  pull  the  stump  up  by  the  roots.  He  pulled  until  we  ran  the 
boat  ashore,  and  thanked  him  for  the  assistance  he  had  given 
us.  The  poor  old  man  really  thought  he  had  done  much  toward 
getting  us  across.  It  was  the  most  absurd  and  ludicrous  sight 
I  ever  saw,  —  the  old  darkey,  with  his  earnest  pull-all-together 
attitude,  his  perspiring  face,  obliging  disposition,  and  the  self- 
satisfied  look  of  his  countenance  as  he  made  steady  and  perse- 
vering efforts  to  draw  the  stump  and  the  bank  of  the  river  to 
his  feet. 

The  county  of  Lavaca  has  an  area  of  nine  hundred  and  fifty 
square  miles.  There  is  about  one-half  of  the  land  timbered  ; 
the  rest,  open  prairie.  The  bottom-lands  are  of  black  alluvial 
soil,  deep,  and  very  productive.  The  population  is  increasing 
rapidly,  and  the  country  is  being  improved  by  a  thrifty  class  of 
immigrants,  —  most  of  them  Germans  and  Bohemians.  At  the 
close  of  the  war  there  were  two  thousand  negroes  in  the  county : 
now  there  is  not  much  more  than  one-fourth  of  that  number. 

We  noticed  an  extraordinary  variety  in  the  style  of  fences,  — 
brush,  wire,  rail,  board,  and  rock,  in  every  imaginable  combina- 
tion. A  large  proportion  of  the  pastures  in  Texas  are  fenced 
with  wire.  The  prejudice  against  the  wire-fence  is  gradually 
dying  out,  and  its  utility  and  durability  are  fast  becoming  ap- 
parent. In  the  prairie  country  west  of  the  Colorado  there  is 
little  timber,  few  saw-mills,  and  lumber  for  fencing  or  building 
purposes  is  very  expensive,  owing  to  the  long  distance  it  has 
to  be  hauled.  A  mile  of  fence  costs  from  two  hundred  to  four 
hundred  dollars,  according  to  the  quality  and  amount  of  material 
used,  and  the  location  of  the  place  fenced.  It  costs  less  per  acre 
to  fence  a  large  pasture  or  farm  than  a  small  one.  This  sug- 
gests a  very  peculiar  mathematical  problem  :  — 

If  to  fence  i  acre  costs  $40,  16  acres  will  cost  $160,  or  £  as  much  per 
acre  as  it  costs  to  fence  i  acre ;  64  acres  will  cost  $320,  or  £  as  much 
per  acre  as  it  costs  to  fence  i  acre ;  256  acres  will  cost  $640,  or  -^  as 
much  per  acre  as  it  costs  to  fence  i  acre ;  and  so  on. 


FENCING  AN  ACRE    WITH  A    TOOTHPICK. 


233 


When  you  come  to  a  forty-thousand-acre  pasture,  it  only  costs 
ten  cents  per  acre  to  fence  it.  I  have  seen  a  fence  around  a 
forty-thousand-acre  pasture ;  and  the  owner,  Mr.  Dewese  of  San 
Antonio,  told  me  that  the  fence  cost  him  just  ten  cents  per 
acre,  and  that  three  feet  of  lumber  fenced  an  acre.  This  sug- 
gests another  calculation  :  — 

It  takes  about  2,000  feet  of  lumber  to  fence  i  acre,  when  5  6-inch 
planks  are  used;  8,000  feet  for  16  acres,  or  500  feet  per  acre;  16,000 
feet  for  64  acres,  or  250  feet  per  acre ;  32,000  feet  for  256  acres,  or 
125  feet  per  acre. 

Now,  what  I  want  somebody  to  figure  out  is,  how  much  land 
a  man  would  require  to  enclose,  so  that  his  fence  would  not  cost 
any  thing  per  acre.  If  the  thing  keeps  on  as  I  have  shown 
above,  it  is  bound  to  come  to  that  in  the  end,  if  the  land  only 
holds  out ;  and  I  believe  it  can  be  figured  out  so  that  a  tooth- 
pick will  fence  an  acre,  and  enough  lumber  be  left  over  to  build 
a  church. 


234 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 


WERE  seven  of  us  in  the  party  that 

/"'j«i'''IB      liJ^T^         started  at  daybreak  for  the   prairie. 

The  two  greyhounds  were  carried  in 
a  buggy. 

"  What  is  that  for  ?  "  said  the  doctor, 
pointing  to  some  peculiar  leather 
straps  the  captain  carried. 

"  That's  a  slip.  You  know,  we  want 
the  dogs  to  start  together.  We  put 
them  in  the  slip.  When  a  hare  starts, 
a  pull  on  this  little  cord  throws  the 

collars  open,  and  both  the  dogs  get  off  at  the  same  moment.    If 
we  did  not  use  a  slip,  the  dogs  would  not  start  together :  one 
might  see  the  hare  before  the  other.     Its  use  is  also  important 
in  restraining  the  dogs  until  the  hare  gets  a  start." 
"  What  do  you  give  the  hare  a  start  for  ? " 
"  Because  the  dogs  run  faster  than  the  hare,  you  know ;  and 
it  would  be  no  fun  to  kill  it  at  once.     What  I  am  afraid  of  is, 
that  the  jack-rabbit  may  not  be  so  fast  as  the  English  hare  ;  but 
I  shall  hold  back  the  dogs,  and  give  the  rabbit  a  good  start." 

A  man  who  looked  like  a  Texas  veteran  smiled  a  gentle 
smile,  that  awoke  the  echoes  in  the  next  county,  and  then  he 
said,  — 

"  B-b-b-bless  your  innocent  heart !  do-do-do-don't  be  afraid  of 
that ;  for  a  ja-ja-ja-jack-rabbit  can  just  ke-ke-ke-keep  ahead  of 
any  thing  that  runs.  A  full-grown  jack  can  beat  a  half-rate 
me-me-message  on  an  air-line." 

The  jack-rabbit  does  not  burrow  in  the  ground:  he  is  found 
concealed  in  a  tuft  of  long  grass,  or  lying  on  the  bare  prairie, 


COURSING    JACK-RABBITS. 


COURSING  JACK-RABBITS. 


235 


with  his  ears  folded  back,  and  looking  like  a  brown  stone  or  a 
buffalo  chip.  When  disturbed,  he  unlimbers  his  long  legs,  un- 
furls his  ears,  and  goes  off  with  a  bound.  After  running  for 
about  a  hundred  yards,  he  usually  sits  down,  throws  his  ears 
back,  listens  for  a  moment,  and  then  goes  off  again. 

When  we  came  to  an  open  place  where  the  ground  was  level, 
the  captain  went  on  foot,  holding  the  dogs  in  the  slips.  Sud- 
denly a  jack-rabbit  started  within  a  few  feet  of  where  he  was 
walking.  The  greyhounds  saw  the  rabbit  the  moment  he 
started,  and  made  strenuous  efforts  to  get  loose.  The  captain 
slipped  them,  and  both  started  together.  The  rabbit  was 
about  fifty  yards  ahead  at 
the  start.  In  sixty  seconds 
he  had  gained  on  the  dogs, 
and  was  a  hundred  yards 
ahead.  In  two  minutes  he 
was  out  of  sight,  and  the 
dogs  were  coming  back  with 
their  tails  between  their  legs. 

Of  the  many  fast  things 
I  had  seen,  from  an  ice-boat 
to  a  note  maturing  in  the 
bank,  none  of  them  ever  ap- 
proached the  speed  of  the 
jack-rabbit.  I  had  often  seen 
these  rabbits  running,  but  I 

had  never  witnessed  one  with  his  speed  accelerated  by  the 
presence  of  a  greyhound  in  his  wake.  It  is  wonderful  to  see 
a  creature  so  short  in  the  legs  running  at  such  an  extraordi- 
nary rate  of  speed. 

Of  six  rabbits  started,  only  one  was  captured,  and  that  was 
a  small  one. 

Capt.  Delane  explained  the  cause  of  each  failure,  and  proved 
to  his  own  satisfaction,  that,  in  every  case,  the  dogs  would  have 
caught  the  rabbits  had  circumstances  been  different.  One  time 
it  was  a  fence  in  the  way ;  the  next,  it  was  the  sandiness  of  the 
soil ;  and  again  it  was  the  delay  in  slipping  the  dogs,  thereby 
giving  the  rabbit  too  great  a  start. 


A   JACK-RABBIT. 


236  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

As  we  turned  to  leave,  the  old  stutterer,  who  looked  like  a 
Texas  veteran,  said,  — 

"Well,  Kernel,  I  th-th-th-think  that  p'raps  a  gr-gr-gr-grey- 
hound  could  catch  a  ja-ja-ja-jack-rabbit  if  you  could  only  fix  it, 
that,  instead  of  gi-gi-gi-giving  the  rabbit  the  st-st-st-start  of  the 
dogs,  you  would  give  the  do-do-do-dogs  the  start  of  the  rabbit." 

We  staid  with  Capt.  Delane  two  days  ;  and  although  we  did 
not  see  as  many  rabbits  caught  as  we  expected,  yet  our  visit 
was  a  very  pleasant  one. 

Our  conversation  after  supper  gradually  drifted  into  the  sub- 
ject of  lawlessness  in  Texas. 

"Yes,"  said  the  captain  in  a  meditative  tone,  "things  were 
rough  around  here  once,  and  scenes  were  enacted  within  sight 
of  where  we  sit  that  did  more  to  give  Texas  a  reputation  for 
lawlessness  than  any  thing  else.  At  present  DeWitt  County 
is  as  orderly  as  any  county  in  Texas,  but  only  a  few  years  ago 
almost  the  entire  population  was  more  or  less  involved  in  a 
vendetta  that  cost  scores  of  men  their  lives.  In  fact,  a  regular 
guerilla  warfare  was  carried  on  between  the  Taylors  and  the 
Suttons,  in  which  most  of  the  adult  male  population  took  sides. 
It  reminded  one  of  the  way  the  rival  Scotch  clans  used  to  en- 
gage in  joint  discussions.  The  son  regarded  it  as  his  sacred 
duty  to  kill  one  or  two  of  his  neighbors,  whose  fathers  had 
years  before  made  him  an  orphan.  From  their  earliest  age  the 
boys  devoted  themselves  to  practising  with  pistols,  and  nursing 
schemes  of  vengeance,  in  which  latter  occupation  they  were 
assisted  by  the  relatives  of  the  men  against  whom  they  enter- 
tained unfriendly  feelings.  In  time  some  of  the  men,  who  at 
first  were  merely  thirsting  for  vengeance,  degenerated  into  or- 
dinary cut-throats  and  highway  robbers.  Dominant  among  the 
DeWitt-county  braves  was  John  Wesley  Hardin,  who  is  now 
in  the  Texas  penitentiary.  It  is  believed  that  he  has  killed 
about  twenty-one  men.  He  inspired  the  whole  community  with 
dread.  Nobody  pretended  to  interfere  with  him.  The  officers 
of  the  law  looked  the  other  way  when  he  passed.  Unless  a 
person  had  visited  DeWitt  County  during  the  prevalence  of 
that  epidemic  of  lawlessness,  he  could  not  form  the  slightest 
idea  of  the  homage  that  was  paid  to  this  outlaw.  Not  that  the 


JOHN   WESLEY  HARD  IN.  237 

people  liked  him,  but  they  were  afraid  to  say  or  do  any  thing 
that  might  be  construed  into  disapprobation  of  his  course.  I 
happened  to  be  in  the  town  of  Cuero  once  during  the  '  reign 
of  terror ; '  and,  although  the  town  was  quiet,  I  was  remarkably 
impressed  with  the  scared  looks  of  the  respectable  citizens 
when  any  reference  was  made  to  Hardin. 

"In  October,  1874,  I  first  visited  Cuero.  I  found  the  town 
comparatively  quiet.  Nearly  a  week  had  passed  over  without 
anybody  having  been  murdered,  and  it  was  inevitable  that  the 
calm  could  not  last  much  longer.  There  were  a  good  many 
people  in  town,  some  local  election  being  in  progress.  The 
first  thing  that  I  remarked,  was  the  large  number  of  armed 
men  who  patrolled  the  streets.  I  also  found  that  there  was  an 
enthusiastic  unwillingness,  on  the  part  of  the  natives,  to  be 
communicative  on  the  subject  of  lawlessness ;  and  as  for  '  Wes' 
Hardin,'  as  he  was  familiarly  and  even  tenderly  called,  few 
would  acknowledge  being  aware  of  the  existence  of  such  a 
person." 

"  Were  they  all  so  much  afraid  of  him  ?  and  had  he  no 
friends  ? " 

"  Well,  not  many  friends.  He  had  some  admirers  ;  but  they 
did  not  care  to  say  any  thing,  even  in  his  favor,  because  Wes' 
was  too  careless.  He  would  hear  that  a  man  had  been  talking 
about  him ;  and  then,  without  inquiring  what  the  man  had  said, 
he  would  fill  him  full  of  lead,  and  afterwards  ask  what  lies  the 
scoundrel  had  been  telling  about  him.  Then,  when  it  was  too 
late,  he  would  find  out  that  the  deceased  was  really  a  friend  of 
his,  and  had  spoken  kindly  of  him.  Hardin  would  then  apolo- 
gize to  the  widow  and  orphans  for  his  thoughtlessness,  and 
make  a  solemn  vow  never  again  to  shoot  a  man  until  satisfied 
that  he  really  needed  shooting.  This  course,  however,  made 
even  his  warmest  friends  appear  cold  and  reticent." 

"  How  did  you  manage  to  find  out  any  thing  about  this  ban- 
dit ? "  inquired  the  doctor. 

"  I  met  a  man  in  the  hotel  who  was  very  intimate  with  Har- 
din. He  said  that  he  and  Wes'  had  been  schoolmates,  and 
that  he  was  not  afraid  to  talk  about  him.  He  volunteered  to 
take  a  walk  with  me,  and  show  me  the  principal  points  of  in- 


238  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG, 

terest  in  the  town.  As  we  strolled  down  the  street,  he  said, 
pointing  to  a  small  store,  'Do  you  see  that  shanty  that  has 
"  Oysters  "  painted  on  the  gable  ?  Well,  sir,  that's  an  historic 
spot.  Right  in  that  saloon  is  where  Wes'  Hardin  shot  an  en- 
tire stranger  —  a  man  from  Missouri  —  twenty  minutes  after 
the  man  had  stepped  off  the  stage  that  brought  him  to  town. 
Wes'  is  the  durndest  fellow  you  ever  set  eyes  on.  Some  people 
call  him  a  murderer,  when  he  ain't  about  to  explain  things  to 
'em.  You  see,  the  fellow  came  into  the  oyster-saloon,  and 
began  talking  to  a  man  who  was  with  him  about  being  on  the 
ragged  edge  of  civilization,  and  said  as  how  he  believed  there 
was  neither  law  nor  justice  in  judge  or  jury ;  and  he  said  he 
wouldn't  be  afraid  to  kill  a  man,  for  he  knew  he  could  bribe  the 
whole  jury  for  two  hundred  dollars,  bulldoze  the  judge  for 
nothing,  and  fix  the  sheriff  with  a  drink.  Hardin,  who  was 
eating  a  dozen  raw,  back  of  the  counter,  asked  the  stranger  if 
he  was  coming  to  stay  in  Texas.  The  stranger  said  he  was. 
Then  Wes'  told  him  that  he  was  the  sort  of  immigrant  that 
wasn't  wanted  in  Texas.  He  told  him  that  he  lied  when  he 
said  that  a  Texas  judge  or  jury  could  be  corrupted,  and  then 
(that  temptation  might  be  kept  out  of  the  jury-box,  I  suppose) 
he  shot  the  stranger  dead  where  he  stood.  Now,  the  idee  of 
calling  that  a  murder !  He  didn't  even  know  the  stranger's 
name ;  had  never  seen  or  heard  of  him  before,  and  conse- 
quently couldn't  have  no  malice.  'Tain't  no  murder  unless 
there  is  malice,  is  it  ?  Wes'  was  drunk,  you  see ;  and,  when  he's 
drunk,  he's  the  durndest  fellow  you  ever  saw  for  law  and  order, 
and  backing  up  the  judiciary.  When  Wes'  is  sober,  he  wouldn't 
hurt  a  fly  ;  but,  just  as  soon  as  he  gets  whiskey,  he's  death  on 
upholding  the  officers  of  the  law,  and  he  generally  keeps  at  it 
till  somebody  gets  hurt.' 

"  When  I  inquired  why  Hardin  was  not  arrested,  the  friend 
of  the  outlaw  was  carried  away  by  an  uncontrollable  fit  of 
laughter  at  the  idea  of  Wes'  Hardin  being  arrested.  He  ex- 
plained to  me,  that,  when  Hardin  got  into  a  difficulty,  no  one 
ever  thought  of  arresting  him.  '  Getting  into  a  difficulty  '  in 
Texas  means  killing  a  man.  Out  in  some  of  the  western 
counties  the  sheriffs  had  to  reside  in  the  brush  for  weeks,  to 


THE  SUTTONS  CORRALLED.         239 

keep  from  being  themselves  arrested.  Let  me  tell  you  what  I 
saw  myself  :  — 

"  The  Taylor  crowd  had  about  a  dozen  of  the  Suttons  cor- 
ralled in  a  house.  The  Suttons  could  not  get  out  without 
being  killed,  and  the  Taylors  dare  not  come  within  range  of  the 
house.  After  a  siege  of  thirty-six  hours,  the  hostile  parties 
made  a  compromise,  according  to  the  terms  of  which  they  were 
to  quit  shooting  each  other,  and  to  turn  their  attention  to  ag- 
ricultural matters  until  after  the  cotton-picking  season.  This 
happened  near  Clinton,  the  county  seat  of  DeWitt  County. 
They  all  rode  into  town  together.  Court  was  in  session,  and 
the  judge  was  very  much  surprised  to  see  Wes'  Hardin  stalk 
into  court  with  his  gun  on  his  shoulder.  He  showed  a  law- 
abiding  disposition.  If  he  had  been  a  lawless  character,  he 
would  have  just  cleaned  up  the  docket  of  that  court,  and  burnt 
the  county  records ;  but  he  wasn't  that  kind  of  reformer  He 
just  said  to  the  judge  in  his  off-hand  way,  '  Old  pard,  me  and 
my  crowd  have  made  up  with  the  Suttons ;  and  I  called  to  in- 
form you,  that,  if  you  find  any  more  indictments  agin  us,  thar 
will  be  a  vacancy  in  this  judicial  district.'  Then,  turning  to 
the  sheriff,  he  said,  '  Me  and  the  Suttons  wants  to  draw  up  a 
sort  of  a  treaty  like,  and  I  want  you  to  sign  it  as  a  witness.  I 
never  want  to  do  nothin'  without  the  sanction  of  the  law.' 
The  sheriff  was  a  little  confused;  because- his  breast-pocket  was 
bulging  out  with  some  fifteen  or  twenty  capiases  from  other 
counties,  commanding  him  to  arrest  John  Wesley  Hardin,  and 
to  make  due  diligence  in  doing  so.  But  he,  and  other  promi- 
nent officials,  willingly  signed  the  document.  After  these  for- 
malities, Wes'  gave  the  judge  permission  to  go  on  with  the 
circus,  as  he  called  it ;  and  he  and  his  crowd  retired  to  a  saloon 
to  celebrate  the  armistice.  Now,  I  saw  all  that  myself." 

"Did  your  friend  show  you  any  other  historic  points  in 
Cuero  ? "  said  the  doctor. 

"Yes,"  replied  the  captain,  "he  did.  We  strolled  out  in  the 
suburbs,  —  about  a  hundred  yards  from  the  business  centre  of 
the  town,  where  the  saloons  were,  —  and  he  pointed  out  an  old 
live-oak  covered  with  moss.  I  was  anxious  that  he  should 
talk  about  something  else  besides  gory  murders :  so  I  took  a 


240  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

lively  interest  in  the  old  oak,  and  suggested  that  probably  under 
its  branches  the  pioneer  fathers  of  Cuero  formerly  celebrated 
the  anniversary  of  their  arrival.  He  said  that  on  that  tree 
three  of  the  Taylor  crowd  were  hung  last  month.  They  were 
taken  out  of  their  beds,  and  strung  up  in  the  night." 

"  Any  more  sacred  spots  ?  "  asked  the  doctor. 

"Oh,  yes!  plenty  of  them  scattered  about  everywhere.  He 
took  me  into  a  saloon  ;  and  pointing  to  a  hole  as  big  as  a  saucer, 
in  the  wall,  as  the  next  object  of  interest  around  which  clus- 
tered tender  and  historic  memories,  he  explained  how  it  was 
caused  by  eighteen  buckshot  that  Bowlegged  Simpson  desired 
to  plant  in  the  head  of  Mexican  Mike,  and  how,  by  a  providen- 
tial interposition,  Simpson's  elbow  was  joggled  as  he  pulled 
the  trigger,  and  the  buckshot  missed  Mike,  and  went  through 
the  wooden  wall.  Then  my  guide  went  on  to  give  a  long 
and  mixed  account  of  a  battle  between  men  with  all  sorts 
of  barbarous  nicknames,  where  all  the  participants  were  either 
killed,  or  perforated  and  carved  beyond  recognition,  and  where 
five  or  six  spectators  got  severely  winged.  Finally,  after  in- 
specting a  few  more  bullet-holes,  and  listening  to  some  more 
history  that  sounded  like  a  chapter  from  the  life  of  the  warrior 
saints  of  the  Bible,  we  got  back  to  the  hotel,  and  I  parted  with 
my  guide. 

"While  I  was  sitting  in  the  hotel,  musing  about  what  an 
unhealthy  place  Cuero  was,  a  man  came  in  carrying  two  shot- 
guns, a  box  of  cartridges,  and  a  rifle.  He  distributed  the  fire- 
arms around  the  room  in  convenient  places.  Presently  another 
ammunition-wagon  stepped  in.  He  was  loaded  with  six-shooters 
and  metallic  cartridges,  which  he  deposited  on  a  desk  in  the 
corner.  Several  other  prominent  citizens  arrived,  every  one  of 
them  loaded  to  the  muzzle,  and  ready  to  go  off  at  a  moment's 
notice,  so  to  speak.  Every  once  in  a  while  a  little  fat  man, 
who  seemed  to  be  chief  of  artillery,  would  pick  up  a  shotgun, 
and,  holding  it  in  a  line  with  my  person,  would  lift  the  hammer 
of  the  weapon  to  see  if  the  cap  was  all  right.  He  did  it  in  a 
careless  way,  that  deprived  me  of  any  sense  of  enjoyment.  I 
sought  the  landlord,  and  inquired  the  meaning  of  all  this  war- 
like preparation.  He  took  me  into  a  closet  under  the  stairs, 


THE  AFFLUENT  EDITOR.  241 

and,  after  swearing  me  to  secrecy,  informed  me,  with  the 
aid  of  pantomime  and  whispers,  that  a  crowd  of  the  Taylors 
were  in  town ;  that  the  Suttons  had  threatened  to  come  in,  and 
clean  the  Taylors  out ;  and  that  the  men  now  in  the  hotel  were 
friends  of  the  Taylors,  preparing  to  hold  the  fort,  should  any 
attack  be  made  that  night." 

"  You  didn't  make  Cuero  your  permanent  residence  ?"  queried 
the  doctor. 

"  I  reckon  I  would  have,  if  I  had  staid  there  that  night ;  but 
I  started  on  the  stage  for  San  Antonio  late  in  the  evening.  I 
had  business  there  anyhow.  I  heard  afterwards  that  there  was 
a  big  fight  in  Cuero  the  night  I  left,  and  that  the  landlord  of 
the  hotel  got  killed  by  accident,  besides  having  the  whole  gable 
end  of  his  house  shot  full  of  holes.  I  did  not  come  back  to 
Cuero  for  two  years  afterwards.  During  these  two  years  most 
of  the  murderers  and  robbers  got  killed  off,  and  Hardin  went 
to  Florida,  where. he  was  caught  about  a  year  ago,  brought  back 
to  Texas,  tried,  and  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary  for  twenty- 
one  years." 

"  Captain,  were  you  in  Cuero  when  old  Feehan  was  running 
the  '  Weekly  Clarion  '  ? "  said  the  red-haired  man  at  the  end  of 
the  table. 

"I  met  him  once,"  said  the  captain,  "during  my  brief  sojourn 
at  Cuero.  On  the  occasion  I  have  just  referred  to,  I  found 
time  to  call  on  the  editor  of  the  '  Clarion.'  I  was  once  a 
newspaper  man  myself ;  and  I  always  make  it  convenient,  when 
I  pass  through  such  a  town  as  Cuero,  to  call  and  pay  my  re- 
spects to  the  great  man  who  wields  the  Archimedean  lever 
that  moves  the  world.  During  my  visit  to  the  '  Clarion ' 
editor,  I  saw  and  heard  what  surprised  me  more  than  any  thing 
I  have  ever  seen  or  heard  in  the  whole  course  of  my  life.  You 
know  how  it  is  in  the  office  of  a  little  country  paper.  It  con- 
sists of  a  suite  of  one  room,  which  is  composing-room,  press- 
room, editorial  sanctum,  dining-room,  and  sleeping-apartment. 
The  editorial  tripod  consists  usually  of  an  old  candle-box  or  an 
empty  nail-keg,  in  front  of  which  is  a  decrepit  old  table  upon 
which  the  thunderbolts  are  forged.  The  editor  is  a  lank,  hol- 
low-eyed man,  who  looks  as  if  he  had  been  blighted  by  an 

16 


242 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


unseasonable  frost  early  in  life.  His  clothes  have  the  same 
blighted  look,  and  his  editorials  show  traces  of  dyspepsia  and 
disappointment.  Irregularity  in  taking  his  meals,  and  the 
mental  wear  and  tear  incident  to  his  getting  out  a  weekly 
paper,  give  him  a  pinched  and  careworn  look.  If  he  is  par- 
ticularly energetic,  he  can  usually  manage  to  raise  enough 
money  semi-occasionally  to  calm  down  the  boy  who  sets  up  the 

paper  and  engineers  the  old 
Franklin  press,  and  prevent 
him  from  going  on  a  general 
strike." 

"But  the  editor  of  the 
'  Clarion '  was  no  such  a 
slouch  as  that,"  said  the 
red-haired  man. 

"  No,  he  was  not ;  and 
that  is  what  surprised  me. 
He  must  have  weighed  two 
hundred  pounds,  and  he  did 
not  look  as  if  he  had  missed 
a  meal  since  he  was  born. 
ED.TOR.  Instead  of  wearing  old 

clothes,  he  was  dressed  in 

a  suit  that  a  nabob  or  a  drummer  might  have  worn.  Instead 
of  an  old  cot  to  sleep  on,  he  had  a  room  all  to  himself,  fixed  up 
with  an  elegant  set  of  furniture,  '  Chimney-Corner '  chromos 
on  the  wall,  and  other  indications  of  extreme  wealth  on  every 
side.  I  could  hardly  believe  my  senses,  and  even  now  the 
whole  affair  seems  to  be  a  kind  of  a  vision.  He  asked  me  to 
step  up  to  the  sideboard,  and,  setting  out  a  whole  box  of 
cigars,  desired  information  as  to  my  preference  in  the  way 
of  tonics.  He  had  bourbon  and  rye,  dry  sherry,  burgundy, 
and  port.  He  apologized  for  the  absence  of  champagne,  stat- 
ing that  his  last  shipment  from  his  San  Antonio  wine-merchant 
had  been  unaccountably  delayed  on  the  way.  I  was  acquainted 
with  the  circumstances  of  the  Texas  editors  in  the  large  towns, 
but  never  had  I  witnessed  such  gorgeousness ;  and  I  wondered 
how  that  little  country  paper  could  support  such  a  John  Jacob 


BLUFFING  AN  EDITOR.  243 

Astor  of  an  editor.  Taking  all  the  material  that  went  to  make 
up  the  'Clarion,' — the  type,  presses,  paper,  and  total  outfit, 
including  an  average  set  of  editorial  brains,  —  the  whole  thing 
would  have  been  extravagantly  dear  at  two  hundred  dollars,  on 
six  months'  time.  Here  was  a  mystery  I  determined  to  un 
ravel  if  it  took  a  week  to  do  so. 

"After  we  had  discussed  several  kinds  of  beverages,  and  were 
in  a  somewhat  advanced  condition  of  mellowness,  I  brought 
the  conversation  around  to  the  influences  of  the  press,  and 
expressed  some  surprise  at  the  wonderful  prosperity  of  the 
'  Clarion.'  The  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  '  Clarion  '  opened 
a  fresh  bottle,  and  smiled  a  most  significant  smile.  Said  he,  '  I 
owe  all  this  fatness  to  Wes'  Hardin.' 

" '  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  you  give  the  moral  support  of 
your  paper  to  lawlessness  ? ' 

"  '  Not  a  bit  of  it,'  he  responded.  '  You  know,  Wes'  and  the 
boys  are  in  the  habit  of  coming  to  town  and  scaring  the  mer- 
chants out  of  their  senses.  There  is  no  telling  what  Hardin 
and  his  crowd  might  do ;  and,  when  they  hear  of  a  man  slander- 
ing them  by  intimating  that  they  are  not  law-abiding  citizens, 
just  as  likely  as  not  they  appoint  a  committee  to  forward  the 
man  to  that  bourn  from  which,  etc.  Now,  while  the  "  Clarion  " 
is  not  a  lawless  organ,  I  did  not  purpose,  for  the  sake  of  the 
miserable  patronage  it  received  from  merchants,  to  pitch  into 
the  boys.  Half  of  the  merchants  didn't  advertise,  and  some  did 
not  even  take  the  weekly  at  two  dollars  a  year.  They  grumbled 
because  I  did  not  give  them  enough  reading-matter,  and  be- 
cause the  editorials  were  not  scholarly  enough  to  suit  them. 
If  it  had  not  been  for  Bill  Jenkins,  who  keeps  the  Gently- 
Dreaming  Saloon,  I  would  have  starved  to  death.  My  clothes 
needed  repairs  before  they  could  have  been  fit  to  put  on  a 
scarecrow.  The  merchants  treated  me  with  contempt ;  and 
when  I  wanted  to  get  a  pair  of  trousers,  or  a  few  pounds  of 
crackers,  I  had  to  come  out  and  puff  them,  and  call  them  mer- 
chant-princes. And  now  —  well,'  continued  the  editor  of  the 
'  Clarion,'  as  he  passed  the  cigars,  and  threw  himself  back  in 
his  armchair  with  the  air  of  a  man  owning  a  silver-mine  and 
a  trotting-horse,  'you  see  yourself  how  I'm  fixed.' 


244  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  '  How  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  magnetic  did  you  manage 
it  ? '  said  I. 

" '  Well,  I'll  tell  you.  These  merchants  here  got  into  the 
habit  of  bullyragging  me  for  not  denouncing  Wes'  Hardin. 
They  alleged,  very  truthfully  too,  that  the  town  had  a  bad 
name ;  country  customers  were  afraid  to  come  here  to  trade  : 
and  they  said  that  the  "  Clarten  "  ought  to  take  a  bold  stand. 
I  knew  what  the  result  would  be  if  the  "Clarion"  were  to  hint 
that  Col.  J.  Wesley  Hardin  was  not  one  of  the  most  respected 
citizens  in  DeWitt  County.  I  would  be — in  short,  shot;  and  I 
did  not  think  the  patronage  the  "Clarion"  was  getting,  justified 
any  such  sacrifice  on  my  part.  Now,  sir,  will  you  believe  it  ? 
One  morning  about  all  the  merchants  in  the  town,  including 
those  who  didn't  subscribe,  waited  on  me  in  a  body.  Said  one, 
who  was  owing  a  year's  subscription,  "  Vy  ton't  you  shust  dake 
a  pold  shtand,  and  give  dem  routies  fits  ?  So  helb  me  grashers ! 
I  shtobs  mine  babers."  He  was  one  who  used  to  take  a  bold 
stand  by  crawling  under  the  store  when  Wes'  Hardin  came  to 
town. 

" '  The  drift  of  the  matter  was,  that  they  had  no  use  for  a 
paper  that  did  not  sustain  the  good  citizens  by  denouncing 
rowdyism  ;  and  they  threatened  to  withdraw  their  support  if  I 
did  not  come  out  in  the  next  issue,  and  denounce  Hardin  and 
his  crowd.  In  their  excitement,  they  called  Col.  Hardin  every 
bad  name  they  could  think  of.  I  offered  them  the  use  of  the 
columns  of  my  paper.  I  agreed,  that,  if  they  would  all  sign  a 
card  denouncing  the  banditti,  I  would  publish  it  free  of  charge. 
This  threw  a  coldness  over  the  delegation :  the  very  idea  scared 
them  ;  for  they  knew,  if  they  did  such  a  thing,  they  would 
be  called  to  an  unpleasant  accountability  as  soon  as  Wes' 
would  read  the  paper.  A  happy  thought  occurred  to  me.  I 
would  turn  the  tables  on  my  unappreciative  patrons.  I  asked 
them  to  wait,  and  I  would  write  an  editorial  on  the  matter 
under  discussion,  and  submit  it  to  them.  They  smiled  signifi- 
cantly at  each  other,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  We  knew  we  would 
bring  him  to  terms."  When  I  had  finished  writing  my  article, 
I  read  it  to  them.  It  was  a  simple  statement  of  facts  :  it  gave 
the  name  of  each  member  of  the  delegation,  the  object  of  the 


THE  ARCHIMEDEAN  LEVER.  245 

visit,  and  the  opprobrious  terms  each  had  used  in  speaking  of 
Col.  Hardin  and  his  friends.  It  told  how  they  sought  to  in- 
timidate and  coerce  the  "  Clarion  "  into  denouncing  a  man  who 
had  never  yet  been  convicted  of  any  crime.  When  I  finished 
reading,  that  delegation  was  the  sickest-looking  set  of  mortals 
I  ever  set  eyes  on.  At  first  they  said  they  would  withdraw 
their  patronage  if  I  published  it.  I  told  them  I  could  better 
afford  to  lose  such  patronage  as  theirs  than  to  suppress  an 
article  like  this,  that  was  bound  to  make  a  sensation,  and  run 
the  "  Clarion's  "  circulation  up  into  the  thousands.  I  asked 
their  advice  as  to  issuing  it  in  the  shape  of  an  extra,  and  send- 
ing a  marked  copy  to  Wes'  Hardin.  I  assured  them  that  I  would 
do  justice  to  their  memories  when  they  were  gone.  I  would 
be  in  attendance  at  their  funerals,  and  publish  a  description  of 
the  obsequies  in  the  columns  of  the  "Clarion."  But,  to  shorten 
my  story,  I  collected  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  in  cash  on 
the  spot  for  subscriptions  and  advertisements,  having  promised, 
at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  the  delegates,  to  say  nothing  of 
their  visit.  Since  then  I  have  had  no  trouble  to  get  along.  I 
am  the  only  really  prosperous  editor  in  Texas.  My  credit  is 
unlimited,  and  the  "Clarion  "  is  read  with  absorbing  interest  by 
our  business  men.  They  are  all  ready  to  indorse  any  thing  I 
say.  Here's  to  Col.  Wes'  Hardin,  the  friend  of  the  press !  God 
bless  him  \ ' 

"Just  as  the  editor  was  draining  his  goblet,  we  were  inter- 
rupted by  a  prominent  merchant  sticking  his  head  in  at  the 
door,  and  saying,  '  Eggscuse  me,  mein  frient,  I  chust  stepped 
over  to  let  you  know  dot  my  fall  gootsh  ash  arrived.  I  hopes 
you  comes  over  and  picks  yourself  oud  a  new  goat  and  bants 
for  my  birthday  breshend.' 

"  I  parted  with  the  affluent  editor,  as  he  went  off  with  the 
merchant  to  get  the  'new  goat  and  bants,'  and  for  the  first 
time  I  realized  how  completely  we  are  all  in  the  hands  of  the 
Archimedean  lever." 

While  in  DeWitt  County,  we  saw  a  company  of  Texas  ran- 
gers. The  rangers  have  done  more  to  suppress  lawlessness,  to 
capture  criminals,  and  to  prevent  Mexican  and  Indian  raids  on 
the  frontier,  than  any  other  agency  employed  by  either  State  or 


246  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

national  government.     They  are   employed   and   paid   by  the 
State. 

The  rangers  are  almost  all  young  men.  They  are  enlisted 
for  a  year,  and  are  each  required  to  furnish  a  horse,  saddle,  and 
bridle,  a  repeating  Winchester  rifle,  and  a  navy  revolver.  The 
State  furnishes  rations,  and  pays  thirty  dollars  a  month  to  each 
private..  They  wear  no  uniform  :  each  man  dresses  as  his  taste, 
or  the  condition  of  his  finances,  may  dictate.  They  are  uni- 
form, however,  in  some  things  :  they  all  wear  broad-brimmed 
sombreros,  and  swear.  There  are  about  a  hundred  and  eighty 
rangers  in  the  service  of  the  State. 

On  our  way  from  Cuero  to  Gonzales,  we  found  some  rangers 
camped  in  the  woods,  on  the  bank  of  a  small  creek.  There 
were  ten  men  in  the  squad.  They  had  been  camped  there  for 
several  days,  waiting  for  the  opening  of  court,  at  which  they 
had  been  ordered  to  attend  to  protect  a  murderer,  whose  life 
was  threatened  by  the  friends  of  the  man  he  had  killed.  It  was 
expected,  that,  should  the  jury  acquit  him,  he  would  be  shot  be- 
fore he  left  the  court-house  by  the  murdered  man's  relatives. 
The  ranger  captain  invited  us  to  dismount,  and  share  the  mid- 
day meal  with  them.  We  accepted  the  invitation,  and  enjoyed 
an  excellent  dinner.  Some  of  the  men  had  caught  fish  in  the 
creek  :  others  had  shot  some  birds  and  a  squirrel.  The  prod- 
ucts of  the  rod  and  the  gun,  with  the  indispensable  corn-bread 
and  coffee,  made  an  unexpected  feast  that  we  were  thankful  for, 
and  to  which  we  did  ample  justice.  We  staid  several  hours, 
while  the  boys  entertained  us  with  stories  of  horse-thief  hunt- 
ing, Indian  trailing,  and  scouting  generally.  The  ranger  cap- 
tain is  responsible  for  the  following :  a  man  called  on  him  one 
day  in  camp.  The  man  looked  like  a  cowboy  :  he  wore  a  dyed 
mustache,  and  he  wanted  to  be  a  ranger. 
"Captain,  I  want  to  join  your  company." 
"  Haven't  got  a  place  for  you,  unless  you're  a  cook." 
"Cook!  Sweet  spirit,  hear  my  prayer!  No,  sir:  I'm  a 
scout  from  the  Far  West,  whar  the  turkey-buzzard  roosts  on  the 
fleshless  ribs  of  the  dead  buffalo,  and  whar  the  coyote  sleeps  in 
the  deserted  wigwams  of  the  skulpt  Indian.  Geehossifat !  I'm 
the  Long-range  Roarer  of  the  Sierra  Mojada  Mountains.  I 


THE    CAVORTIN*    CATACLYSM. 


247 


want  to  enlist  in  your  company,  and  show  you  how  to  clean  out 
the  gory  red-skins." 

"  But  we  are  full ;  don't  need  another  man." 

"  Major,  you  don't  mean  it !  You  don't  know  who  I  am.  I'm 
on  it,  I  want  you  to  know.  I'm  no  feather-bed  soldier.  I'm  old 
pie,  I  am  ;  and,  when  it  comes  to  fightin'  Indians,  I'm  just  the 
sort  of  a  liver-pad  you  want." 

"  But  I  tell  you,  there  is  no  use  "  — 

"O  Lordy,  colonel!  jest  give  me  a  show.  You  can't  know 
who  you  are  talking  to.  I'm  the  Cavortin'  Cataclysm  of  the 
Calaveras  Canyon,  — the  terror  of  "  — 

"Well,  all  right!  Dry  up,  now,  and 
I'll  take  you ;  for  I  believe,  since  I've 
come  to  think  of  it,  that  we  do  need  a 
long-range  roarer,  and,  taking  you  at 
your  word,  I  think  you  will  fill  the 
bill." 

So  Bill  was  enlisted  in  the  rangers, 
and  went  out  with  them  on  the  next 
trail.  His  tale  of  the  many  Indians  he 
had  chawed  up  soon  gave  him  a  promi- 
nent position  among  the  boys,  many  of 
whom  had  never  seen  an  Indian  sign. 
His  opinion  and  advice  were  sought  by 
the  officers  whenever  any  matter  of 
difficulty  presented  itself.  His  advice 
was  always  given  in  general  terms,  and 
to  the  effect,  that,  when  the  moment  for  action  would  arrive, 
they  should  be  calm  and  collected,  keep  cool,  and,  above  all,  use 
strategy.  On  the  last  point  he  dwelt  in  terms  of  almost  lyric 
fervor :  "  In  war,  gentlemen,  strategy  is  more'n  guns,  it's  more'n 
whiskey,  it's  more'n  any  thing ;  and  it's  hellamile  when  you 
come  to  tradin'  lead  with  the  Indians." 

Somehow  or  other  Bill,  who  from  his  knowledge  of  signs, 
was  given  temporary  command  of  the  scouting-party,  always 
arrived  too  late.  "  Indians  been  here  last  night,  sure's  you're 
a  foot  high,"  he  would  say.  He  promised  from  day  to  day  to 
bring  the  command  up  with  the  fugitives  "  to-morrow,  'bout  two 


THE    CAVORTIN'    CATACLYSM. 


248 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


hours  by  sun  ;  and  when  they  tackle  me,  boys,  they'll  find  they 
have  barked  up  the  wrong  tree,  you  can  just  bet  your  boots." 

One  morning,  on  turning  around  a  neck  of  woods,  they  came 
suddenly  within  sight  of  about  fifty  Indians,  who  were  in  the 
act  of  breaking  camp.  Every  one  looked  to  the  experienced 
Indian-chawer  for  their  cue.  He  was  equal  to  the  occasion. 
"  Hush  !  "  said  Bill :  "  lie  low,  be  cool,  and  wait  for  orders  :  I'll 
show  you  what  strategy  can  do."  And  cautioning  them  to  keep 
concealed  behind  trees,  and  not  to  move  until  he  returned,  the 
Cavorting  Cataclysm  put  spurs  to  his  horse,  and,  striking  a  trail 
at  right  angles  to  their  former  course,  he  disappeared  over  a 
slight  rise  in  the  ground.  The  rangers  waited  for  him  until 
near  sundown,  expecting  every  moment  to  see  some  grand 
strategic  movement  inaugurated  by  the  scout  from  the  Far  West. 
When  next  seen  by  the  boys,  the  geographical  position  of  the 
Long-range  Roarer  from  the  Sierra  Mojada  was  two  hundred 
miles  east,  and  he  was  engaged  in  the  prosaic  occupation  of 
mixing  drinks  in  a  Waco  saloon  for  the  paltry  sum  of  forty  dol- 
lars a  month. 


A  SURPRISE. 


249 


CHAPTER    XIX. 


WERE  two  days  riding  from 
Cuero  to  Luling.  On  the  sec- 
ond night  we  camped  in  the 
woods  a  few  miles  from  the  lat- 
ter place.  Being  tired,  we  slept 
soundly  on  the  hard  ground.  In 
the  morning  when  we  awoke, 
about  daybreak,  we  noticed  six 
Winchester  rifles  and  carbines, 
three  shotguns,  and  four  six- 
shooters,  that  we  had  not  ob- 
served the  night  before.  I  had 
time  and  again  gazed  on  an 
array  of  levelled  muskets  —  in  a  gunshop ;  but  that  never 
affected  me  as  did  these  newly  discovered  arms.  We  were 
surprised  to  see  such  an  armory  in  that  out-of-the-way  place ; 
but  our  astonishment  was  of  short  duration,  for  it  had  to  give 
place  to  other  and  more  powerful  emotions.  An  unpleasant 
feeling  of  uncertainty,  not  unmixed  with  a  positive  foreboding 
of  some  dire  misfortune,  took  possession  of  us,  caused  by  the 
discovery  of  an  ill-favored  varlet  embracing  the  wooden  end  of 
each  weapon. 

I  had  on  one  occasion  sought  the  bubble  Reputation  at  the 
cannon's  mouth  —  that  was  when  I  ran  for  first  corporal  in  the 
Washington  Guards  ;  but  no  incident  of  my  experience  with 
fire-arms  exceeded  this  in  thrilling  interest.  The  thrill  that 
wandered  around  inside  me,  when  I  gazed  into  the  muzzle  of 


250 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


the  rustiest  shotgun,  was  of  the  largest  caliber,  —  some  twelve 
to  the  pound.  In  1863  I  looked  into  the  mouth  of  Roaring 
Meg,  the  big  cannon  on  the  walls  of  Londonderry;  in  1875  I 
stood  at  the  base  of  Mount  Cenis,  and  peered  into  the  dark 
opening  of  the.  great  tunnel ;  last  year  I  was  introduced  to  the 
biggest  bore  in  our  own  country,  — a  man  who  owned  a  patent 
motor ;  and  a  short  time  ago  I  had  my  attention  called  to  an 
opening  in  the  grocery  business  :  but  the  largest  orifice  I  ever 


''"MM&';^-'          ^" 

:       •  - v  :^S&^- 


HOLD    UP    YOUR    HANDS.' 


examined  in  my  life,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  was  the  one  I  saw  as 
I  looked  inside  the  barrel  of  the  old  muzzle-loader  pointed  at 
my  head  on  this  occasion. 

"  Hold  up  your  hands ! "  said  the  leader  of  the  party,  —  a 
small  man  with  a  long  duck-gun  at  his  shoulder,  —  "and  be 
pretty  quick  about  it." 

So  anxious  were  we  to  avoid  giving  him  any  opportunity  to 
exasperate  us,  that  if  he  had  suggested  —  in  a  gentlemanly  way, 
of  course — that  we  should  stand  on  our  heads,  and  hold  up  our 


ABOUT  TO  BE  HUNG.  251 

legs,  the  suggestion  would  have  been  acted  on  at  once.  The 
doctor  got  his  hands  up  with  an  alacrity  that  I  had  never  seen 
equalled.  I  held  my  hands  up  too,  as  the  matter  did  not  admit 
of  any  delay. 

"We  had  a  devil  of  a  time  catching  up  with  you,"  said  the 
spokesman.  "  I  suppose  you  know  what  you  are  to  expect.  We 
are  going  to  commission  you  for  a  longer  journey  than  the  one 
you  started  on,  durn  you  ! " 

We  expressed  our  surprise  at  their  action,  and  requested  that 
they  might  explain  what  they  meant. 

"Yes,  that's  the  way  with  all  of  you  :  you  don't  never  know 
nothing.  You're  too  good  to  live  in  a  hard  community  like 
this ;  and  that's  the  reason  that  your  sort  is  always  in  such  a 
hurry  to  get  away  that  you  are  compelled  to  borrow  a  horse,  and 
scoot  without  saying  'by  your  leave.' " 

We  understood  our  situation  now.  We  were  supposed  to  be 
horse-thieves.  It  was  a  very  unenviable  position,  —  our  earthly 
hopes  in  the  past,  thirteen  armed  men  in  the  present,  and  a 
rope  in  the  immediate  future.  We  offered  to  prove  our  inno- 
cence by  our  papers. 

"  Papers  be  blowed  !  Of  course  you  have  papers.  They  all 
have  'em,  —  bushels  of  'em. 

"  Put  a  beggar  on  horseback,"  continued  the  leader,  address- 
ing us,  "and  you  know  where  he  goes.  Well,  that's  where 
you  are  going ;  and  we  propose  to  furnish  the  means  to  start 
you.  Bring  on  the  ropes,  Alex. ! " 

Alex,  produced  about  thirty  feet  of  rope.  The  presence  of 
the  men  in  our  camp,  and  the  subsequent  proceedings,  were  so 
sudden,  I  could  not  realize  that  in  a  few  minutes  I  was  going 
to  be  "launched  into  eternity,"  as  the  newspaper  reporters  say 
when  describing  the  hanging  of  a  criminal.  I  caught  myself 
wondering  if  the  rope  would  hurt  much  more  because  it  was 
new  than  an  old  one  would,  and  hazarding  guesses  as  to  whether 
they  would  haul  us  up  from  the  ground  in  the  old  way,  or  put 
us  on  horses,  and  then  lead  the  horses  from  under  us,  —  the 
more  modern  way  of  "snapping  the  vital  thread." 

A  discussion  now  took  place  between  some  of  our  captors, 
as  to  whether  we  should  be  allowed  ten  minutes  for  prayer  or 


252  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

not ;  and  one  man  proposed  that  we  should  be  taken  back  some 
distance,  until  another  party  that  was  in  pursuit  on  another 
road  would  have  a  chance  to  "  see  the  show,"  as  he  put  it,  and 
"have  a  share  in  the  good  work." 

The  anti-prayer  was  in  the  majority.  They  argued  that  horse- 
thieves'  prayers  wouldn't  be  "  no  account,  nohow,"  and  there- 
fore it  would  be  useless  to  lose  further  time.  After  some 
discussion,  however,  they  agreed  that  it  would  be  pure  selfish- 
ness to  enjoy  the  festivities  all  by  themselves  ;  that  it  would  be 
a  burning  shame  to  cheat  their  absent  co-laborers  out  of  partici- 
pation in  the  entertainment  by  being  too  precipitate ;  and  they 
were  self-denying  enough  to  delay  the  proceeding  until  they 
could  conduct  us  back  to  a  point  where  they  expected  to  meet 
the  other  scouting-party.  Just  as  they  were  about  to  start  with 
us,  yells  from  human  throats,  tramp  of  horses'  feet,  and  crack- 
ing of  branches,  advised  us  that  another  party  of  horsemen  was 
approaching.  I  thought  of  all  the  stories  of  frontier  life  I  had 
ever  read :  and  I  remembered,  and  was  consoled  by,  the  fact,  that 
the  prisoner  bound  for  execution  was  always  saved  by  the  op- 
portune arrival  of  friends  at  the  critical  moment ;  that,  where 
the  honest  white  man  was  helpless  under  the  uplifted  toma- 
hawk of  the  savage,  a  "well-directed  shot"  from  the  gun  of  a 
hidden  friend  invariably  saved  him.  This  never  failed.  It  was 
always  so  in  the  books  I  had  read.  The  innocent  man  never 
suffered.  The  Nemesis  of  the  wicked  was  always  on  hand  at 
the  right  moment,  in  the  shape  either  of  a  trapper,  who  was 
unconventional  beyond  what  was  human,  or  of  a  good  Indian, 
who  spoke  in  short  paragraphs,  and  could  be  in  six  places  at 
once.  I  was  comforted,  and  looked  for  relief  at  the  hands  of 
the  approaching  horsemen  ;  although  I  had  some  doubts,  for  I 
had  heard  that  all  the  good  Indians  were  dead.  My  hopes  were 
of  short  duration  ;  for  one  of  our  captors  said,  "  That's  them 
now !  I  hear  Bill  Gatlin's  tongue  a-waggin'  :  I'm  glad  he's 
along;  he's  accustomed  to  the  business,  and  can  do  the  job  to 
a  dot." 

Four  horsemen  galloped  into  the  open  space.  "  Jist  in  time 
to  help  put  'em  through,  Bill.  We  have  got  'em.  There  they 
are.  Slick-lookin'  fellows,  ain't  they  ?  and  I  reckon  them's  your 


THE  BUG  FROM  UNDER   THE    WRONG   CHIP.     253 

horses  staked  out  there ; "  and  he  pointed  to  our  ponies  crop- 
ping the  grass  at  some  distance  off. 

"  Them  my  horses  !  you fool !  You  have  took  the 

bug  from  under  the  wrong  chip  this  time.  Why,  the  horses 
that  were  stolen  from  me  were  two  hands  higher  than  them 
plugs,  and  these  men  here  are  all  right.  They  stopped  at 
uncle  Pete's  night  'fore  last.  And  I  have  done  catched  my 
horses,  and  swung  up  one  of  the  thieves,  an  hour  ago.  I  trailed 
him  into  the  bottom,  and  we  never  took  him  off  the  horse : 
we  led  the  mustang  from  under  him,  and  left  him  hanging 
there." 

"  Well,  gosh  darn  it !  "  said  our  captor :  "  if  that  ain't  a  blamed 
shame,  after  all  our  trouble !  Let's  take  a  drink,  and  get  out 
of  here."  He  handed  around  a  beer-bottle  full  of  whiskey, 
remarking,  "  Better  luck  next  time.  This  is  the  most  uncer- 
tain country  I  ever  saw.  There  is  no  pleasure  in  living  in  it, 
anyhow.  Whenever  a  fellow  thinks  he  is  going  to  have  a  good 
time,  he  is  sure  to  slip  up  on  it.  Why  didn't  we  do  as  I  wanted 
to,  —  hang  'em  first,  and  discuss  the  evidence  afterward  ?  Can't 
make  a  mistake  that  way,  because  you  can  be  sure  they  needed 
hanging  for  something,  anyhow.  I  say,  durn  such  a  country  !  " 

After  advising  us  not  to  be  "too  confounded  smart  next 
time,"  or  we  might  fall  in  with  a  crowd  not  disposed  to  be  so 
lenient,  the  man  with  the  duck-gun  mounted  his  horse,  and  was 
about  to  ride  off.  It  was  over  in  a  moment.  Before  he  got 
the  reins  gathered  up,  Bill  Gatlin  had  drawn  and  fired  his  re- 
volver, and  the  owner  of  the  duck-gun  had  gone  to  render  an 
account  of  his  villanies,  —  gone,  as  he  had  wanted  us  to  go, 
without  a  moment  wherein  to  breathe  a  prayer. 

"  What  does  all  this  mean  ? "  cried  several,  as  they  gathered 
around  Bill  and  his  smoking  revolver. 

"  Mean  ?  I'll  tell  you  what  it  means :  it  means  that  this 
fellow  is  a  brother  of  the  thief  we've  hung.  They  have  been 
working  in  partnership,  and  have  thirty  head  of  horses  corralled 
down  in  the  bottom,  ready  to  drive  off  to  Kansas.  They 
worked  it  fine,  but  they  didn't  get  up  early  enough  in  the 
morning  for  this  crowd." 

"By  thunder!   he  was   the  fellow  that  first  put  us  on  the 


254  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

trail  of  these  galloots.  Easy  to  see  now  why  he  wanted  them 
hung  so  suddint." 

I  realized  that  the  stories  in  the  books  were  right,  after  all ; 
and  I  reproached  myself  for  having  doubted  them. 

We  were  very  thankful  for  getting  off  so  easy ;  for,  as  has 
been  before  intimated,  murder  and  midnight  robbery  are  con- 
sidered mere  misdemeanors  when  compared  with  horse-stealing. 

Not  long  since,  in  an  interior  town  of  Texas,  a  young  man 
with  blond  hair,  a  freckled  nose,  and  other  marks  of  personal 
attractiveness,  applied  to  the  deputy-sheriff  for  a  pass  to  see 
his  father,  who,  he  had  reason  to  suppose,  was  an  inmate  of  the 
county  jail. 

"  What's  your  name  ? "  asked  the  officer,  turning  to  his  regis- 
ter. 

"  I'm  Jim  McSnifter,  from  the  Arroyo  Colorado." 

"  What  peculiar  kind  of  playfulness  has  your  feyther  been 
amusin'  himself  with,  —  murder  in  the  first  degree?" 

"  Wusser  than  that,"  was  the  McSnifterian  response. 

All  levity  vanished  from  the  face  of  the  officer,  who  was 
really  a  kind-hearted  man  ;  and  there  was  human  sympathy,  and 
perhaps  a  tear  in  his  eye,  as  he  turned  over  the  page,  and  said 
in  a  low  voice,  — 

"  Worse  than  murder !  My  God !  he  must  have  stolen  a 
pony ! " 

"  It  was  some  misunderstanding  about  a  mewel,"  observed 
McSnifter,  jun.,  punishing  his  cowhide  boots  with  his  whip. 

"  There  are  none  of  the  McSnifters  in  jail.  Maybe  I've  got 
a  capias  for  you.  Don't  go  just  yet."  And  the  officer  looked 
in  vain  through  his  files  to  accommodate  the  young  man,  who 
began  to  explain,  — 

"  I  bleeve  in  the  last  indictment  the  old  man's  name  was 
spelt  Bob  White.  You  see,  that's  the  old  man's  new  jail-name. 
The  title  of  the  suit  is  '  The  State  agin  White.'  " 

"Why  didn't  you  say  so  at  once  ?  You  mean  that  is  his  title 
at  court.  Why,  certainly  !  just  you  come  along,  and  I'll  present 
you.  He  is  in  the  ground  cell.  Come  along !  I  want  to  see  if 
the  old  rooster  hasn't  been  trying  to  saw  his  hobbles  off." 

About  noon  we  arrived  at  Luling,  which,  a  short  time  ago, 


LULING. 


255 


was  the  terminus  of  the  San  Antonio  Railroad,  and  it  remained 
so  for  almost  a  year.  It  was  a  type  of  the  town  created  by  the 
railroads  in  their  progress  through  Texas.  Its  history  would 
read  like  a  chapter  from  the  biography  of  the  man  with  the 
wonderful  lamp,  —  its  site,  one  day  the  feeding-ground  of  the 
jackass-rabbit  and  the  home  of  the  coyote ;  a  month  hence,  a 
wooden  town  of  a  thousand  inhabitants.  Where  then  the  rat- 
tlesnake aired  his  poisonous  fangs,  now  the  denizen  of  the 
music-hall  exhibits  her  equally  dangerous  blandishments.  Then 
the  wild  beasts  of  the  field,  as  their  instincts  and  necessities 
taught  them,  made  war  on  each  other  with  the  weapons  nature 
furnished :  now  human  beasts  (gamblers  and  roughs),  prompted 
by  the  devil  and  bad  whiskey,  destroy  each  other  with  the 
deadly  derringer  and  the  murderous  bowie-knife. 

In  one  short  month  the  howling  wilderness  is  transformed, 
by  the  nervous  energy  and  resistless  enterprise  of  the  railroad 
pioneer,  into  a  town  of  a  hundred  houses,  where  beer  is  sold, 
billiards  are  played,  the  gentle  tiger  is  bucked,  and  the  strange 
woman  holds  her  court ;  where  the  scattered  fragments  of  the 
Third  Commandment  darken  the  air,  and  the  sound  of  the  pistol- 
shot  is  monotonously  frequent,  —  a  pandemonium  of  vice,  folly, 
and  sin,  where  the  struggle  for  gold,  and  the  viler  passions  of 
men,  blot  out  the  better  part  of  man's  nature,  —  a  place  where 
a  drink  of  whiskey  costs  twenty-five  cents,  a  poor  cup  of  straight 
coffee  the  same  amount,  and  a  badly  cooked  dinner,  served  on 
a  rough  pine  table  without  a  cloth,  costs  a  dollar,  —  a  spot 
where  all  manner  of  trades  and  professions  are  represented, 
where  the  bedbug  luxuriates,  and  even  the  book-agent  lurketh 
around,  with  his  brazen  cheek  burnished  more  elaborately  than 
usual,  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  situation.  So  moves  the 
car  of  progress ;  so  the  "  star  of  empire  westward  takes  its 
way,"  and  civilization's  march  is  onward  toward  the  gateway  of 
the  setting  sun.  This  condition  of  things  is  merely  the  fore- 
runner of  the  true  civilization,  —  the  darkness  before  the  dawn, 
disorder  before  order,  chaos  before  creation. 

The  men  and  women  who  constitute  the  society  of  such 
places  merely  prepare  the  way  for  better  men  and  women. 
They  are  as  rude,  as  barbarous,  and  more  degraded  than  the 


256 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


savage.  The  ancient  heathen  worshipped  wooden  images,  and 
sacrificed  their  bodies  under  the  wheels  of  Juggernaut's  car : 
these  worship  perishable  gold,  adore  filthy  greenbacks,  and 
sacrifice  their  souls  in  pursuit  of  the  pleasure  that  money  can 
buy. 

Walking  up  the  straggling  streets,  we  find  the  houses  in 
irregular  rows,  and  fronting  on  the  streets  at  every  possible 
angle  of  incidence.  The  houses  are  mostly  of  the  dry-goods- 
box  style  of  architecture,  the  fronts  covered  with  roughly 
painted  signs  for  the  purpose  of  letting  the  world  know  the 


STREET-SCENE    IN    LULING 


proprietor's  business,  and  how  badly  he  can  spell.  Here  is  a 
restaurant  where  the  owner  advertises  "  Squar  Meals  at  Reson- 
able  Figgers,  and  Bord  by  the  Day  or  Weak ; "  next,  a  Chi- 
nese laundry  ;  then  a  beer-saloon  ;  across  the  street  a  gun-shop  ; 
next  to  it  a  saloon ;  then  a  bakery,  a  saloon,  another  saloon 
with  billiards,  a  lumber-yard,  a  dance-house,  a  restaurant,  a 
free-and-easy,  a  saloon,  a  shooting-gallery,  a  faro-bank,  a  gro- 
cery, a  saloon  and  hotel,  a  ten-pin  alley,  a  concert-hall ;  and  so 
on  to  the  end  of  the  street.  Queer  and  suggestive  signs  some 
of  these  whiskey-dens  have,  — "  The  Sunset,"  "  The  How- 


A   RAILROAD   TERMINUS.  257 

Come-You-So,"  "The  Panther's  Den  ;"  and  on  one,  in  a  North- 
Texas  town,  is  inscribed  the  legend,  "  Road-to-Ruin  Saloon  — 
Ice-cold  Beer  5  cts.  a  Skooner." 

While  passing  the  Dew-Drop-Inn  saloon,  we  were  startled 
by  several  pistol-shots  being  fired  in  quick  succession  inside 
the  house,  and  only  a  few  feet  from  us.  Assuming  a  safe  posi- 
tion behind  a  convenient  cotton-bale,  we  awaited  the  develop- 
ment of  events.  A  loud-talking  crowd  was  in  the  saloon.  The 
crash  of  glass,  and  the  fragments  of  billiard-cues  that  came 
whizzing  out  of  the  door,  indicated  that  somebody  was  raising- 
Gehenna  inside.  As  the  shooting  ceased,  the  crowd  came  pour- 
ing out,  carrying  the  limp  form  of  a  man  who  was  shot  in  the 
leg,  had  a  bullet  in  his  left  lung,  and  was  bleeding  profusely 
from  a  knife-cut  on  the  neck.  Inquiry  elicited  the  information 
that  he  was  a  cowboy,  who,  being  on  a  "  high  lonesome,"  en- 
tered the  saloon,  and  incontinently  began  discharging  his  six- 
shooter  at  the  lamps  and  mirrors  behind  the  bar.  This,  it 
seems,  is  a  favorite  pastime  with  the  high-spirited  cattle-kings 
in  their  moments  of  enthusiasm.  The  role  had  been  enacted, 
however,  with  such  frequency,  of  late,  that  it  began  to  pall 
on  the  taste  of  the  spectators.  What  was  at  first  a  tragedy, 
exciting  and  dramatic,  was  now  but  a  vapid  piece  of  very 
weak  comedy  of  questionable  taste  and  doubtful  propriety.  So 
thought  the  barkeeper  ;  and  he  emphasized  his  views  by  placing 
a  few  bullets  where  he  thought  they  would  do  the  most  good, 
and  have  the  most  mollifying  effect.  The  wounds  were  fatal. 
The  playful  cowboy  died,  and,  as  a  bystander  remarked,  "  never 
knew  what  hurt  him." 

The  barkeeper  was  never  tried.  In  less  than  twenty-four 
hours  this  "  difficulty,"  as  it  was  called,  passed  out  of  the  pub- 
lic mind  in  the  light  of  a  fresh  and  more  interesting  incident 
of  a  like  character,  where  two  men  were  killed,  and  one  woman 
dangerously  wounded. 

So  long  as  a  town  remains  the  terminus  of  a  railroad  in 
Western  Texas,  it  presents  the  characteristics  described.  The 
roughest  of  wild  frontiersmen  and  desperadoes  congregate 
there.  It  is  what  is  called,  in  the  classic  vernacular  of  the 
country,  "  a  hoorah  place."  As  soon  as  the  terminus  is  located 

'7 


258  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

ten  or  twelve  miles  farther  west,  a  new  town  springs  up,  the 
rowdy  element  moves  out  of  the  old  one,  half  of  the  houses  are 
moved  off  to  the  new  town,  and  the  place,  wrecked  and  dis- 
mantled, is  left  to  the  few  people  who  came  to  stay.  It  is  then 
that  the  real  progress  and  civilization  begins.  Brick  houses 
take  the  place  of  the  wooden  ones  carried  away ;  the  bullet- 
holes  in  the  doors  and  shutters  are  filled  with  putty  ;  the  brazen 
noise  of  the  music-hall  is  hushed,  and  in  its  stead  the  voice  of 
the  Methodist  circuit-rider  is  heard  singing  the  songs  of  Zion. 

Some  years  ago  the  trapper,  the  hunter,  and  the  ox-wagon 
pioneer  formed  a  transition  state  between  the  end  of  savagery 
and  the  beginning  of  civilization.  The  change  and  develop- 
ment were  gradual :  they  may  be  compared  to  the  cathedral  at 
Cologne.  One  generation  after  another  added  wing  after  wing  ; 
there  was  pleasing  variety  in  the  architecture ;  each  addition 
merged  harmoniously  into  the  preceding  one  ;  and  all  had  their 
history  and  associations.  The  whole  structure  was  the  result 
of  growth  upon  growth,  change  after  change,  until  little  of  the 
original  could  be  recognized.  The  slow  march  of  improvement 
in  our  ancestors'  days  allowed  time  for  mellowing  down  the 
acute  angles  incident  to  new  structures,  —  allowed  time  for  the 
growth  of  architectural  light  and  shade,  for  the  adornment  of 
homes,  and  for  the  cultivation  of  social  amenities.  Now  the 
civilization  incident  to  railroad  extension  moves,  as  it  were,  by 
columns,  and  in  forced  marches.  No  advance  guard  of  skir- 
mishing pioneers  hew  out  the  way :  the  change  is  sudden, 
startling,  and  decidedly  characteristic  of  American  civilization, 
—  a  sudden  substitution  of  a  busy  community  for  a  hitherto 
untrodden  wilderness.  The  benefits  that  are  thus  gained  in 
time  are  counterbalanced  by  the  newness  and  the  monotonous 
rectangularity  of  every  object  presented  to  the  eye.  The  dis- 
tressingly geometrical  construction  of  every  thing  —  from  an 
easy-chair  to  a  court-house,  from  a  spittoon  to  a  watering- 
trough  —  is  very  offensive  to  the  eye  that  has  been  accustomed 
to  the  rounding  and  mellowing  effect  produced  by  the  hand  of 
time. 

These  headstrong,  irresistible  pioneers  have  not  time  to 
think  that  the  curvilinear  is  the  line  of  beauty ;  and,  if  they 


LITTLE  MAY.  259 

should  think  of  it,  it  would  only  be  as  of  a  thing  associated 
with  a  future  and  more  luxurious  age.  They  are  in  that  state 
where  beauty  and  ornamentation  are  subservient  to  utility  and 
economy. 

In  the  hotel  where  we  were  stopping,  there  was  a  guest 
whose  name,  as  the  register  showed,  was  Joseph  P.  Maxwell, 
but  who  was  better  known  among  his  associates  and  the  people 
of  the  town  as  "Monte  Joe."  He  had  been  in  Luling  about 
three  months.  No  one  knew  where  he  came  from,  and  no  one 
cared  to  know.  He  had  stepped  off  the  train  one  morning, 
had  registered  at  the  hotel,  and  in  three  days  afterwards  was 
on  speaking  terms  with  one-half  of  the  male  population  of  the 
place. 

In  a  town  like  Luling,  society  was  not  exacting.  A  stranger 
was  not  required  to  exhibit  credentials,  nor  to  state  who  his 
grandfather  was,  as  a  condition  of  entree  into  society.  In  fact, 
society  was  of  a  mixed  character,  —  if  it  had  any  character  at 
all,  —  and  could  not  afford  to  be  particular.  Monte  Joe  was 
handsome,  well  dressed,  and  of  genial  manners.  He  brought 
a  blue-eyed,  sunny-haired  child  with  him,  —  his  daughter, — a 
smiling,  laughing,  little  fairy,  who  captured  the  hearts  of  all 
who  knew  her.  In  her  presence  the  cares  of  life  vanished  ;  and 
the  people  felt,  as  they  listened  to  her  joyous,  childish  prattle, 
that,  after  all,  this  world  was  not  such  a  vale  of  tears  as  they 
had  thought  it  was. 

Little  May  saw  but  the  rosy-hued  side  of  the  clouds  that 
encircled  her  life.  She  loved  the  bright  sunshine,  the  birds, 
and  the  flowers ;  she  loved  music  and  pictures  :  but  above  all, 
and  with  a  greater  and  stronger  love,  she  loved  her  father, 
Monte  Joe  the  gambler.  These  two,  father  and  daughter, 
seemed  to  live  for  each  other,  and  in  the  light  of  their  mutual 
love. 

Joe's  face  had  a  worn,  sad  look,  except  when  he  was  playing 
with  the  child.  Then  there  was  a  soft,  happy  light  in  his  eyes, 
and  a  womanly  look  on  his  handsome  face.  When  he  got  ex- 
cited at  the  gambling-table,  and  swore,  or  when  he  was  insulted 
or  annoyed, — then  the  sadness  and  womanliness  vanished,  and 
his  eyes  gave  evidence  of  the  devil  within. 


26O 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


It  must  be  acknowledged  that  Joe  was  much  given  to  the 
vice  of  swearing,  but  he  never  swore  in  the  child's  presence. 
It  was  pretty  well  known  that  he  was  ready  at  all  times  to 
back  any  statement  that  he  might  make,  and  to  give  his  oppo- 
nent choice  of  weapons.  His  friends  claimed  that  he  never 
"  took  water ; "  but  it  must  not  be  inferred  from  this  that  he 
declined  to  use  water  as  a  beverage.  It  was  only  their  terse 
way  of  explaining  that  he  was  a  brave  man.  Joe  was  not  a 
bully :  he  never  sought  a  quarrel ;  but,  as  those  who  knew  him 
said,  when  a  quarrel  was,forced  upon  him,  "he  was  there."  It 
was  rumored  that  he  had  killed  three  men,  but  that  did  not  de- 
tract from  his  stand- 
ing in  a  community 
where  killing  a  man 
was  often  a  neces- 
sity and  a  praise- 
worthy action.  No 
one  could  tell  any 
thing  about  Joe's 
history  previous  to 
his  advent  in  Lu- 


ling.  He  never  re- 
ceived any  letters, 
and  he  never  wrote 
any.  Regarding  the 
past,  he  was  reti- 
cent. He  and  the  child  seemed  to  be  alone  in  the  world. 
Little  May  had  never  known  any  relatives  except  her  father. 
Joe  wore  a  deep  band  of  crape  on  his  hat.  He  was  father  and 
mother  and  all  to  her,  and  she  was  all  the  world  to  him.  The 
boys  used  to  say,  that,  if  the  child  should  die,  her  death  would 
kill  Joe.  Amid  such  surroundings,  and  associating  with  such 
characters  as  of  necessity  little  May  was  compelled  to  associate 
with,  it  was  a  wonder  that  the  child  retained  her  childishness. 
There  was  nothing  pert  or  precocious  in  her  words  or  actions  ; 
although  she  sometimes  had  quaint  ways  of  expressing  herself, 
and  would  ask  queer  and  startling  questions.  She  played  but 
little  with  other  children.  When  her  father  was  absent,  she 


LITTLE     MAY. 


FAIRY-TALES.  261 

would  amuse  herself  in  a  corner,  for  hours  at  a  time,  with  the 
end  of  an  old  billiard-cue  dressed  in  rags  for  a  doll.  This  doll 
was  the  recipient  of  all  her  secrets.  She  would  tell  it  how 
lonely  she  was  when  papa  was  away,  how  much  she  loved  papa, 
and  what  beautiful  things  she  was  going  to  sew  and  "  broider  " 
for  him  when  she  became  a  big  girl.  Her  greatest  desire  was 
to  get,  "to  wear  all  the  time  every  day,"  as  she  expressed  it, 
some  old  jewelry  that  her  papa  kept  in  a  trunk,  and  used  to 
bring  out  and  show  to  her  when  they  were  alone  on  Sunday 
mornings.  "And,  Dolly,"  the  child  would  say,  "I  wish  you 
was  big  too,  that  you  might  tell  me  what  makes  papa  cry  when 
he  puts  that  pretty  chain  around  my  neck.  Papa  says  he  will 
tell  me  some  day,  when  I's  a  big  girl,  when  we  live  in  a  pretty 
little  house  that  will  be  May's  own  house,  with  vines  all  around 
it,  and  pictures  on  the  walls,  and  a  bird  in  a  gold  cage.  Then 
I'll  let  nobody  live  there  but  papa  —  and  you,  Dolly,  if  you  be 
good." 

She  told  stories  to  the  doll  about  giants  —  bad  and  wicked 
giants  —  who  ate  little  children,  and  afterwards  came  to  an  un- 
timely end,  as  all  bad  and  wicked  giants  should.  Papa  killed 
all  the  giants,  and  it  was  papa  who  rescued  all  the  children  who 
were  in  danger  from  bears  and  lions.  And  the  child  added 
something  to  every  story,  wherein  "papa"  figured  as  the 
champion  of  the  oppressed,  the  benefactor  of  the  poor,  and  the 
good  angel  who  guarded  the  virtuous. 

As  little  May  walked  down  the  street  with  her  father,  women 
who  had  lost  all  their  womanliness  —  and  there  were  many  such 
in  the  town  —  spoke  in  hushed  tones  in  her  presence.  To  them 
she  was  a  speck  of  gold  in  a  mass  of  baser  metal,  a  ray  of 
light  from  a  better  world,  a  bright  piece  of  color  on  a  sombre 
background.  As  her  childish  words  and  joyous  laugh  smote 
the  ears  of  those,  who,  although  now  hardened  with  the  world's 
folly,  had  still  a  woman's  heart,  they  were  moved  by  her  fresh- 
ness and  purity ;  and  the  unbidden  tear  often  coursed  down 
their  cheeks,  as  they  thought  of  the  time  when  they,  too,  were 
but  a  little  lower  than  the  angels. 

And  so  they  went  on  from  day  to  day,  little  May  and  her 
father.  From  the  nature  of  Joe's  profession,  he  was  at  leisure 


262  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

during  the  day.  In  the  summer  mornings,  while  yet  the  dew 
was  on  the  grass,  he  and  the  child  would  be  seen  passing  down 
the  street,  out  by  the  cemetery,  past  the  straggling  huts  and 
tents  where  the  railroad  hands  lived,  on  into  the  woods,  —  the 
child  sometimes  on  her  father's  back  or  in  his  arms  ;  sometimes 
running  along  by  his  side,  chasing  the  butterflies  and  the  hum- 
ming-birds, or  gathering  the  wild-flowers  of  the  prairie.  Down 
by  the  banks  of  the  clear  stream  they  would  go,  — down  into  the 
valley,  where,  in  the  sunlight,  grew  the  flowers  and  grasses  (a 
rich  and  beautiful  carpet  of  Nature's  weaving),  while  in  the 
shade  the  fern  and  the  vine  flourished  in  luxurious  profusion,  — 
down  in  the  groves  of  the  valley,  with  their  patches  of  light  and 
shade,  where  Nature's  choristers  chanted  carols  of  joy,  and 
sang  songs  of  welcome.  There  in  some  quiet  nook  they  staid 
and  played  and  laughed  all  through  the  long  summer  day,  —  the 
father  telling  fairy-tales  to  the  child  ;  the  little  one  weaving 
crowns  of  leaves  for  her  father's  head,  and  garlands  of  flowers 
for  his  neck.  It  was  there  that  Joe  the  gambler  told  little 
May,  in  words  suited  to  her  understanding,  the  old,  old  story  of 
man's  creation  and  woman's  disobedience,  of  God's  love  and 
compassion,  and  of  the  Saviour's  suffering.  He  told  her  of 
heaven  and  of  the  angels  there,  and  of  the  joy  and  peace  and  rest 
in  the  home  of  the  good  beyond  this  life.  Joe  was  a  sceptic, 
and  would  have  claimed  that  he  did  not  believe  these  tales  any 
more  than  he  believed  the  other  fairy-tales  that  he  told  to  the 
child ;  but  he  felt,  that  although  he  could  do  without  a  religion 
and  a  God  himself,  yet  he  could  not  afford  to  let  his  child  be- 
lieve as  he  did.  With  a  strange  inconsistency,  he  acted  as  if  the 
belief  that  was  good  enough  for  himself  was  not  good  enough 
for  his  "little  one,"  as  he  loved  to  call  her ;  and  he  taught  her, 
as  well  as  he  could,  the  religion  of  his  mother. 

The  God  that  the  child  was  taught  to  love  was  not  the  God 
that  we,  in  our  childhood,  were  taught  to  fear,  —  a  being  whose 
chief  attributes  were  wrath,  anger,  and  revenge.  They  tried 
to  teach  us  to  love  him  by  telling  of  the  calamities  he  would 
send  on  us  in  the  present,  and  the  seething  hell  he  would  con- 
sign us  to  in  the  future,  if  we  whistled  on  Sunday,  or  failed  to 
enjoy  reading  the  genealogical  tables  and  narratives  of  kingly 


LITTLE  MAY'S   GOD.  263 

atrocities  and  priestly  fallibilities  contained  in  the  Bible.  They 
pointed  out  to  us  the  passage  in  the  Good  Book  where  we  were 
informed  that  "  God  is  angry  with  the  wicked  every  day  ; "  and 
then  they  explained  to  us  how  totally  wicked  and  depraved  we 
were.  This  was  not  the  God  that  little  May  believed  in.  Her 
God  was  one  that  loved  little  children,  —  one  that  came  down  to 
earth,  and  took  little  ones  in  his  arms,  —  one  whose  heart  was 
full  of  love  and  compassion,  and  who  gave  life  and  health  where 
the  God  they  tried  to  force  on  us  sent  death  and  torment.  To 
little  May,  God  was  a  real  though  unseen  personage,  who  got 
credit  equally  with  her  father  for  providing  all  the  good  things 
she  received.  She  talked  to  him  when  alone ;  and,  every  night 
when  she  prayed,  she  asked  him  to  send  papa  home  safe,  often 
adding,  "and  make  him  bring  some  candy  too."  Her  faith  in 
God  and  in  her  father  was  wonderful. 

One  day  Joe  was  walking  down  the  street  with  little  May  by 
his  side,  when  a  man  stepped  out  of  a  saloon,  and  cursed  him. 
accusing  him  of  having  acted  unfairly  at  the  gambling-table. 
He  slapped  Joe  on  the  face.  Joe  became  very  pale,  and  trem- 
bled so  that  one  not  knowing  him  would  have  supposed  that  he 
was  afraid.  For  a  moment  he  looked  irresolutely  at  the  child 
by  his  side  ;  then,  taking  her  up  in  his  arms,  he  hurried  to  the 
hotel.  Not  a  word  was  said  by  Joe  or  any  of  the  spectators. 
It  was  some  time  before  those  who  were  witnesses  to  the  oc- 
currence recovered  enough  from  their  surprise  at  the  temerity 
of  the  man  who  had  insulted  Joe,  to  offer  any  criticisms  on 
his  action.  Then  the  saloon-keeper,  looking  up  at  the  sky  with 
half-closed  eyes,  as  if  he  were  making  an  abstruse  astronomical 
calculation,  remarked,  "There'll  be  a  dead  man  round  some- 
whar  to-night." 

It  was  a  true  prediction.  The  jury  said  that  Joe  was  justifi- 
able. 

During  the  second  day  of  our  stay  in  Luling  the  doctor  was 
called  on  by  the  landlord,  and  requested  to  go  and  see  little 
May,  who  was  sick.  "  Five  weeks  ago,"  said  the  landlord,  "  she 
was  out  with  her  father  down  by  the  creek,  and  came  home 
with  a  sort  of  dumb  chill,  and  she  hasn't  got  over  it  yet,  and 
I'm  afeerd  she  never  will.  God  knows  that  we  would  rather 


264  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

part  with  the  best  man  in  town  than  with  little  May,  we  all 
love  her  so  !  " 

It  appeared,  that,  from  the  day  on  which  May  became  ill,  she 
had  never  left  her  room.  Day  by  day  she  became  more  feeble, 
and  now  for  a  week  she  had  been  unable  to  leave  her  little  bed. 
The  people  of  the  town  talked  lovingly  of  her  patience  in  suf- 
fering, and  showed  their  sympathy  and  love  for  her  by  sending 
fruits  and  flowers,  toys  and  fancy  groceries  enough  to  have 
made  Santa  Claus  envious ;  and  one  big  Irish  tie-spiker  sent 
her  a  bottle  of  whiskey,  with  a  message  that  she  "  would  foind 
a  drap  av  it,  wid  hot  wather  and  shugar,  moighty  comfortin' 
whin  the  chills  took  hoult."  The  people  were  all  very  consid- 
erate of  her  comfort.  The  owner  of  the  ten-pin  alley  closed 
the  place  for  a  week,  rather  than  disturb  her  with  the  noise ; 
and  the  landlord,  with  a  club,  knocked  down  a  man  who  had 
startled  the  child  by  shooting  a  negro  on  the  sidewalk. 

I  accompanied  the  doctor  in  his  visits  several  times.  We 
found  the  little  one  cheerful  and  happy,  as  she  sat  propped  up 
with  pillows  at  the  head  of  her  bed.  She  was  gazing  out  of  a 
window,  across  the  tree-tops,  at  the  place  where,  with  her  father, 
she  had  spent  so  many  happy  hours,  and  where  the  wild-flowers 
now  bloomed  for  other  eyes,  and  the  birds  sang  for  other  ears  ; 
for  nevermore  would  little  May  visit  the  place,  or  leave  her 
room  again. 

It  was  on  the  eve  of  the  day  before  we  left  Luling  that  we 
saw  her  for  the  last  time.  Her  father  was  going  to  her  room 
with  medicine.  He  told  us  she  was  much  better,  and  that  he 
thought  the  crisis  was  over.  He  invited  us  to  go  and  see 
her. 

We  entered  the  room  on  tiptoe.  On  a  small  bed  by  the  win- 
dow lay  little  May.  Her  face  was  thin  and  pale,  and  but  the 
shadow  of  a  dimple  was  on  her  cheek.  Her  eyes  had  a  sober, 
suffering,  far-away  look,  until  she  saw  Joe  coming  in  behind  us. 
Then  her  eyes  brightened  up  until  they  shone  like  stars,  the 
pained  look  on  her  face  gave  way  to  a  smile,  and  the  dimple  for 
an  instant  came  back  to  her  cheek.  Joe  saj:  down  on  a  low 
chair  by  her  side,  and  we  stood  around  her  bed.  She  reached 
out  her  thin  iittle  arms  toward  her  father. 


DEATH  OF  LITTLE  MAY. 


265 


"  The  doctor  says  I  am  going  to  die  and  leave  you.  Is  it  true, 
papa  ? " 

Her  father  buried  his  face  in  the  pillow,  and  sobbed. 

"  Then,  papa,  we  won't  have  any  more  nice  picnics  together ; 
and  I'll  have  to  go  to  heaven  alone,  all  by  myself.  But  don't 


DEATH    OF   LITTLE    MAY. 


cry :  you  will  come  soon,  papa,  won't  you  ?  and  I'll  watch  for 
you ;  and  when  you  come,  we  will  gather  flowers  together  all 
day  long  by  the  beautiful  river,  and  I'll  never  go  away  from  you 
any  more." 

The  last  rays  of  the  sun,  as  it  sinks  behind  the  distant  hori- 


266 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


zon,  lights  up  her  face  with  a  rosy  tint,  as  with  an  effort  she 
puts  her  arms  around  Joe's  neck,  and  whispers,  "My  poor, 
lonely  old  papa !  " 

Then  all  is  still.  There  is  no  sound  in  the  room,  except  the 
tick-tick  of  the  little  clock  on  the  mantelpiece,  as  it  registers 
the  flow  of  the  river  of  time  into  the  ocean  of  eternity ;  but 
musical  echoes  of  the  jubilant  song  of  jthe  heavenly  visitants 
around  the  bed  of  little  May  on  earth  reach  to  the  gates  of 
heaven  itself.  The  angel  sentinels  on  the  walls  of  the  golden 
city  take  up  the  refrain,  and  the  glad  chorus  resounds  through 
all  the  corridors  of  the  heavenly  mansion,  until  it  bursts  in  ex- 
ultant hosannas  around  the  throne  of  God. 

Little  May  is  dead. 


ANCIENT    IDOL. 


THE 


YEAR: 


267 


CHAPTER    XX. 


STARTED  from  Luling 
at  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  By  eleven 
it  was  so  hot  that  we 
were  compelled  to 
seek  shade  and  rest. 
There  had  been  no 
rain  for  six  weeks ; 
and  the  natives  were 
beginning  to  predict 
that  this  would  be  as 
bad  as  1857,  the  dry 
year  in  Western  Tex- 
as. In  that  year  the 

drought  killed  all  the  crops  ;  and  there  was  nothing  raised,  not 
even  an  umbrella,  during  the  whole  season.  One  man  told  us 
that  we  were  bound  to  have  rain  sooner  or  later ;  and,  when  it 
did  come,  it  would  be  a  deluge,  and  there  would  be  no  telling 
when  it  would  quit  raining,  — that  it  would  be  like  unto  a  great 
dam  broken  loose.  There  had  been  a  great  many  damns  break- 
ing loose  from  the  exasperated  farmer,  he  said ;  but  they  had 
had  no  perceptible  effect  on  the  meteorological  condition  of 
Western  Texas. 

For  three  thousand  years,  more  or  less,  we  have  all  been 
bored  nearly  to  death  hearing  and  reading  about  how  much 
superfluous  wisdom  Solomon  was  endowed  with.  Among  other 
sayings  of  his,  that  are  being  continually  inflicted  on  the  public, 
is  one  to  the  effect  that  "there  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun." 
Wonder  if  Solomon  ever  saw  any  thing  like  Western  Texas 


268 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


weather !  It  is  new  every  day,  and  sometimes  two  or  three 
times  a  day.  It  may  snow  and  hail  in  the  morning ;  about 
dinner-time  the  clouds  will  let  their  garnered  fulness  down ; 
and  in  the  evening  you  can  have  Italian  sunset  and  moonlight, 
palm-leaf  fans,  and  ice-cream.  The  man  who  undertakes  to 
predict  the  weather,  and  makes  one  bull-eye  in  a  possible 
ninety-nine,  is  doing  better  than  can  seventy-five  of  the  oldest 
inhabitants. 

Texas  is  infested  with  people  who  predict  sudden  changes  in 
the  weather.  The  weather-sharp  is  an  alleged  prophet,  who 
tries  to  make  people  believe  he  is  more  intimate  with  the  cli- 
mate than  anybody  else  in  the  whole 
community.  One  would  suppose,  to 
hear  him  talk,  that  he  slept  with  the 
clerk  of  the  weather,  who  adopted 
his  suggestions.  He  is  to  be  found 
everywhere.  All  he  wants  is  a  cli- 
mate :  any  climate  will  do,  even  a 
second-hand  one ;  but  he  has  to  have 
some  little  climate  to  start  with,  and 
then  he  makes  up  all  the  rest  of  the 
climate  as  he  goes  along.  Dr.  Kane 
found  weather-sharps  up  among  the 
Esquimaux,  within  three  and  a  half 
inches,  on  the  map,  of  the  north  pole. 
They  would  predict  by  infallible  signs, 
that  within  three  days  the  weather  would  be  so  sultry  you  might 
go  in  bathing  "mit  nodings  on."  Stanley  found  weather-sharps 
in  the  heart  of  Africa,  who,  when  it  was  hot  enough  to  cause 
the  mercury  to  knock  the  end  off  a  three-foot  thermometer, 
would  swear  it  was  impossible  for  forty-eight  hours  to  pass  over 
without  a  norther.  It  is  as  ridiculous  to  talk  of  a  sober  inebri- 
ate or  an  honest  thief  as  it  is  to  talk  about  a  truthful  weather- 
sharp.  Originally,  perhaps,  they  were  not  so  depraved.  They 
do  not  reach  the  hard-pan  of  wickedness,  the  bed-rock  of  de- 
pravity, at  once.  At  first  they  begin  by  predicting  what  kind 
of  weather  is  going  to  be  on  the  day  following ;  and  they  keep 
it  up  until  finally,  losing  all  moral  restraint,  they  will  tell  you 


THE    WEATHER-SHARP. 


THE    WEATHER-SHARP.  269 

to  a  day  how  many  millions  of  years  it  will  be  before  the  earth 
will  become  a  lump  of  solid  ice,  or  fall  into  the  sun  and  burn 
up  everybody,  including  the  weather-sharp.  In  no  other  instance 
do  they  ever  predict  any  thing  pleasant  or  favorable.  They 
become  reckless  and  desperate,  and  inflict  a  six-months'  drought 
or  an  unheard-of  severe  winter  on  a  helpless  population  with- 
out winking.  And  yet,  if  some  public  benefactor  were  to  brain 
one  of  these  climatic  frauds,  half  the  newspapers  would  be 
shocked,  and  say  the  act  was  injudicious,  and  calculated  to 
discourage  immigration  ;  whereas  the  reverse  is  the  truth.  What 
immigrants  are  going  to  come  to  a  country  where  these  weather- 
fiends  go  about  tampering  with  the  elements,  interfering  with 
the  seasons,  and  making  everybody  afraid  to  go  out  fishing  on 
Sunday  for  fear  there  will  be  an  earthquake  or  a  deluge  before 
he  can  get  back  ? 

It  is  a  sight  to  exasperate  a  saint,  to  observe  one  of  those  old 
graven  images  inspect  the  clouds,  as  if  he  had  furnished  the 
material  they  were  made  of,  rub  the  end  of  his  chin  on  his 
palm,  and  drawl,  "Well,  I  reckon,  boys,  if  we  don't  have  a  change 
within  a  week,  we  are  in  for  a  right  smart  spell  of  weather,  if  old 
Uncle  Billy  knows  any  thing  about  it ;  and  you  bet  he  does." 
Occasionally  this  venerable  monument  of  the  good  nature  or 
negligence  of  the  fool-killer  will  try  to  ring  in  wild  ducks,  squir- 
rels, and  even  the  shells  of  the  pecan-nuts,  as  joint  conspirators 
against  the  public  peace  of  mind.  He  is  the  outcast  who  started 
the  superstition  that  wild  ducks  are  a  forerunner  of  cold  weather, 
and  many  there  are  who  still  follow  the  delusion.  They  put  on 
flannels  and  winter  clothes,  and  buy  firewood  when  it  is  higher 
than  four  dollars  a  load  ;  and  then  warm  weather  sets  in  for  six 
weeks,  and  they  sweat  and  swear,  and  are  afraid  to  take  off  their 
warm  dry-goods  for  fear  of  catching  cold.  It  is  the  weather- 
sharp  who  induced  soft-headed  people  to  believe  that  the 
amount  of  pecans  the  squirrel  stores  away  in  his  vaults  has 
something  to  do  with  the  kind  of  a  winter  that  has  been  ordered 
for  the  occasion.  If  the  squirrels  lay  up  plenty  of  pecans,  it  is 
because  the  mast  is  abundant.  When  there  are  no  pecans,  the 
prudent  squirrel  does  not  lay  up  any,  not  even  if  the  winter 
should  last  for  six  months. 


270  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

i 

The  squirrel  himself  has  better  sense  than  to  believe  in  such 
humbug.  When  he  looks  out  of  the  garret-window  of  a  four- 
story  tree,  and  sees  the  young  man  of  the  period  riding  out 
in  a  buggy  in  his  last  winter's  coat,  the  squirrel  doesn't  say, 
"  Young  men  are  wearing  their  winter  clothes  already.  I  must 
lay  in  firewood,  and  the  children  have  got  to  have  new  under- 
clothes, and  I  need  an  overcoat,  and  Mrs.  Squirrel  will  have 
to  get  a  new  fall  bonnet.  This  is  going  to  be  a  hard  winter, 
because  young  men  wear  winter  clothes  early."  You  never 
hear  of  a  squirrel  emitting  any  such  nonsense.  He  thinks  for 
himself,  and  muses  correctly :  "  That  young  man  wears  his 
winter  coat  thus  early  because  he  had  to  take  his  duster  to  the 
pawnbroker  to  raise  money  to  pay  the  buggy-hire." 

And  about  pecan-shells.  It  is  said  that  when  they  are  hard, 
the  winter  is  going  to  be  cold  —  as  if  a  pecan  had  a  sixty-three 
ounce  brain.  An  investigation  will  show  that  two  trees  within 
fifty  yards  of  each  other  will  bear  pecans  the  shells  of  which 
differ  very  much  in  thickness. 

This  brings  me  naturally  to  another  subject  that  I  have 
already  alluded  to,  —  the  Texas  climate,  and  what  it  is  good  for. 
The  climate  is  an  unabridged  one,  and  I  feel  that  I  would  be 
doing  it  an  injustice  if  I  did  not  devote  a  page  or  two  to  it. 

When  the  pious  old  Spanish  missionaries  first  came  to  West- 
ern Texas  to  convert  the  Indians  —  and  every  thing  else  they 
could  lay  their  hands  on  —  to  their  own  use,  they  noticed  the 
extreme  balminess  of  the  atmosphere,  the  gorgeous  Italian  sun- 
sets, and  the  superior  quality  of  the  climate.  They  were  sur- 
prised to  think  that  the  Creator  would  waste  so  much  good 
climate  on  the  wicked  heathen.  Back  where  they  all  came  from, 
—  where  the  folks  were  all  good  Catholics,  and  observed  two 
hundred  and  eleven  holy  days  in  the  year,  —  they  couldn't  raise 
as  much  climate  in  twelve  months  as  they  could  harvest  in 
Western  Texas  in  one  short  week. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Republic  of  Texas,  and  even  after 
annexation,  many  of  the  white  men  who  came  to  Western  Texas 
from  all  parts  of  the  United  States  had  strong  sanitary  reasons 
for  preferring  a  change  of  climate.  To  be  more  explicit,  most 
of  the  invalids  had  been  threatened  with  symptoms  of  throat- 


THE   TEXAS   CLIMATE.  271 

disease.  So  sudden  and  dangerous  is  this  disease,  that  the 
slightest  delay  in  moving  to  a  new  and  milder  climate  is  apt  to 
be  fatal,  —  the  sufferer  dying  of  dislocation  of  the  spinal  verte- 
bra at  the  end  of  a  few  minutes  and  a  rope. 

A  great  many  men,  as  soon  as  they  heard  of  Western  Texas, 
left  their  homes  in  Arkansas,  Indiana,  and  other  States,  —  left 
immediately,  between  two  days  ;  the  necessity  of  their  departure 
being  so  urgent  that  they  were  obliged  to  borrow  the  horses 
they  rode  to  Texas  on.  All  these  invalids  recovered  on  reach- 
ing San  Antonio.  In  fact,  they  began  to  feel  better,  and  to 
consider  themselves  out  of  danger,  as  soon  as  they  crossed  the 
Guadalupe  River.  Some  of  them,  who  would  not  have  lived 
twenty-four  hours  longer  if  they  had  not  left  their  old  homes, 
reached  a  green  old  age  in  Western  Texas,  and,  by  carefully 
avoiding  the  causes  that  led  to  their  former  troubles,  were  never 
again  in  any  danger  of  the  bronchial  affection  already  referred 
to.  As  soon  as  it  was  discovered  that  the  climate  of  Western 
Texas  was  favorably  disposed  toward  invalids,  a  large  number 
of  that  class  of  unfortunates  came  to  San  Antonio.  Many 
well-authenticated  cases  of  recoveries  are  recorded.  Men  have 
been  known  to  come  to  San  Antonio  suffering  with  consump- 
tion, and  so  far  recover  as  to  be  able  to  run  for  office  within  a 
year,  and  to  be  defeated  by  a  large  and  respectable  majority, 
all  owing  to  the  dry  atmosphere,  and  the  popularity  of  the  other 
candidate. 

There  is  very  little  winter  in  Western  Texas.  But  for  the 
northers,  San  Antonio  would  have  a  tropical  climate,  as  it  is 
situated  on  the  same  parallel  of  latitude  as  Cairo  in  Egypt, 
where  they  have  tropics  all  the  year  round.  As  it  is,  there  is 
seldom  any  frost,  although  it  is  not  an  unusual  thing  for  lumps 
of  ice  several  inches  thick  to  be  found  in  tumblers  by  those 
who  go  to  market  in  the  early  morning.  Occasionally  New- 
Year's  calls  are  made  in  white  linen  suits  and  an  intoxicated 
condition.  Spring  begins  seriously  in  February.  The  forest- 
trees  put  on  their  beautiful  garments  of  green,  and  the  fruit- 
trees  come  out  in  bloom.  Prairie-flowers  and  freckles  come 
out  in  this  month,  and  the  rural  editor  begins  to  file  away  spring 
poetry.  In  February  stove-pipes  are  laid  away  in  the  wood- 


272  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

shed,  and  the  sirup-of -squills  and  "  Kough-Kure  "  man  puts  a 
coat  of  illuminated  texts  on  the  garden-fence.  Seed-ticks  are 
not  pulled  until  April.  Early  in  March  the  doctors  oil  their 
stomach-pumps  ;  for  the  green  mulberry  ripens  about  that  time, 
and  has  to  be  removed  from  the  schoolboy. 

Toward  the  middle  of  April  the  early  peach  appears ;  and  all 
nature  —  and  the  druggist  —  smiles,  ushering  in  the  long  and 
lingering  summer-time,  when  the  ice-cream  festival  of  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Embarrassment  rageth  from  one  end  of 
fair  and  sunny  Texas  to  the  other. 

Such  is  a  short  synopsis  of  the  varying  features  of  the  Texas 
climate,  as  described  to  me  by  an  old  veteran.  He  also  told 
me  that  there  used  to  be  a  very  peculiar  fruit  in  Western  Texas, 
that  of  late  years  has  become  quite  scarce.  It  was  something 
in  the  nature  of  a  parasite,  like  the  mistletoe,  growing  on 
almost  any  kind  of  tree,  but  generally  preferring  those  with 
wide-spreading  branches,  from  which  it  hung  pendent.  It 
ripened  at  almost  any  season.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  this 
fruit  collected  by  the  coroner  in  Wilson  County  in  1860. 
While  it  no  longer  grows  wild,  so  to  speak,  in  the  forest,  it  is 
still  cultivated  with  much  success  in  enclosed  yards  —  jail-yards 
principally. 

Almost  all  kinds  of  fruit  that  grow  in  the  Northern  States 
can  be  successfully  raised  in  Texas.  Figs  and  grapes  grow  in 
great  quantities,  and  attain  a  large  size.  Two  kinds  of  grapes 
are  indigenous  to  the  soil,  —  mustang,  and  a  small  variety  of 
sweet  winter  grape.  Wine  can  be  made  from  either  kind,  and 
drunk  with  highly  unsatisfactory  results.  The  farmers  probably 
do  not  know  how  to  make  it.  The  stuff  they  manufacture  and 
call  wine  is  sour  enough  to  pucker  up  the  mouth  of  a  cannon. 

The  proprietor  of  the  Houston  "Age"  told  me  that  an  old 
farrrjer  from  the  Brazos  once  presented  the  marine  editor  of 
the  "  Age "  with  a  complimentary  bottle  of  native  mustang 
wine  in  return  for  three-years'  subscription  he  was  owing. 
The  old  salt,  who  compiled  the  shipping  intelligence  for  the 
columns  of  the  "Age,"  was  so  carried  away  with  gratitude, 
that  he  wrote  a  juicy  editorial  on  Fort  Bend  County  claret, 
telling  how  superior  it  was  to  the  imported  article,  which  was 


EFFECTS   OF  THE    CLARET.  273 

usually  adulterated.  He  recommended  it  for  medicinal  pur- 
poses on  account  of  its  being  the  pure  juice  of  the  grape,  and 
wound  up  by  calling  the  old  farmer  the  people's  benefactor. 

The  editor  was  an  old  traveller,  and  too  smart  to  drink  any 
of  the  diabolical  stuff.  He  had  a  family  dependent  on  his 
exertions  :  he  was  afraid  that  taking  a  glass  of  the  healthful 
beverage  might  invalidate  his  life-insurance  policy,  even  if  it 
failed  in  more  fatal  results.  But  the  printers  were  young  men, 
and  of  strong  constitution.  The  editor  sent  one  of  them  the 
bottle  of  wine  along  with  the  article  on  the  Fort  Bend  County 
claret,  which  was  to  be  set  up  immediately. 

After  refreshing  himself  with  a  long  pull  at  the  bottle,  the 
printer  went  to  work.  He  had  set  up  the  first  part  —  about  the 
wine  being  good  for  medicinal  purposes  —  before  the  stuff  began 
to  take  effect.  The  colic  was  so  severe  that  he  could  not  stand 
up  to  pick  the  type  ;  and,  when  he  did  set  up  a  line  between  the 
spasms,  his  type  and  his  talk  were  rather  contradictory.  When 
he  got  to  the  length  of  "  delicious  flavor,  and  beneficial  effects 
on  the  digestive  organs,"  the  cramps  got  him,  and  he  gave 
vent  to  his  feelings  in  the  most  horrible  profanity,  cursing  the 
wine,  the  villain  who  made  it,  and  the  editor  who  gave  it  to 
him.  When  he  got  the  type  straightened  out  to  read,  "  This 
native  wine  of  Texas  is  equal  to  the  wine  presented  by  the 
priests  of  Apollo  to  Ulysses,  and  which  he  described  as  lus- 
cious, pure,  and  worthy  the  palate  of  the  gods  :  the  wine  of 
the  native  mustang  grape  will  sustain  the  enervated  energies 
of  the  invalid,  and  nerve  the  strong  arm  of  the  warrior  to  deeds 
of  noble  daring,"  he  gave  a  howl,  and  ground  his  teeth  to- 
gether, as  he  yelled,  "  Oh,  Lordy !  how  I  wish  I  had  the  ener- 
vated invalid  who  sent  me  that  liquid  shoe-blacking !  Canaan's, 
happy  shore !  Wouldn't  I  make  him  sorry  that  he  had  nerved 
the  strong  arm  of  the  warrior  with  the  [profanity]  diabolical 
stuff!" 

Then  he  set  up,  "This  wine,  being  the  pure  juice  of  the 
grape,  and  unadulterated,  is  suitable  for  sacramental  purposes." 
Again  he  was  doubled  up ;  and  as  he  pressed  his  hands  on  his 
stomach,  and  rolled  on  the  floor,  he  said,  "  I  always  did  hate 
a  [more  profanity]  fool,  anyhow.  If  I  had  the  low  assassin  who 

18 


274 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


sent  me  that  wine  here  —  soul  of  Bacchus  !  wouldn't  I  sacrifice 
him!  and  that  other  old  atrocity  who  made  the  stuff,  how  I'd 
like  to  see  him  hanging  on  one  of  his  own  sour-grape  vines  ! 
—  Jim,  you  unfeeling  young  pup,  why  don't  you  run  for  some 
whiskey,  or  a  doctor,  or  something?  Want  to  see  me  die  in 

my  tracks,  do  you  ? "     [Pro- 
longed profanity.] 

The  typographical  errors 
in  the  article  on  "The  Cul- 
ture of  the  Native  Grape " 
were  so  dreadful  that  the 
man  who  presented  the  wine 
to  the  editor  stopped  his  pa- 
per. 

I  have  not  quite  got 
through  telling  about  the 
wonders  of  the  Texas  cli- 
mate yet.  As  it  was  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  cases 
of  a  consumptive  being  cured 
after  he  had  exhausted  every 

known  remedy,  and  when  both  of  his  lungs  were  gone,  I  have 
concluded  to  put  it  on  record  as  illustrating  the  advantages 
Texas  has  to  offer  in  the  way  of  salubrity  of  climate. 

His  name  was  Crank.  He  was  from  Syracuse,  N.Y.,  and 
was  suffering  from  lung-disease.  He  came  to  Texas,  hoping 
that  the  climate  might  benefit  him.  He  came,  however,  when 
it  was  too  late  to  hope  for  much  improvement  in  his  condi- 
tion. 

Away  out  on  the  hills,  fifty  miles  west  of  San  Antonio,  the 
air  is  pure,  there  is  no  dampness  in  the  atmosphere,  and  per- 
sons suffering  with  consumption,  and  going  there  in  the  early 
stages  of  the  disease,  are  either  cured,  or  have  their  days  length- 
ened. This  man,  Crank,  went  to  Boerne,  but  his  health  did 
not  improve  there.  Boerne  is  a  resort  of  consumptives  ;  and 
he  found  too  many  invalids  like  himself,  —  invalids  who  talked 
about  themselves  and  their  poor  remnants  of  lungs,  and  coughed 
and  groaned  all  night.  The  hotels  and  boarding-houses  smelled 


RUN    FOR    WHISKEY    OR    A 


OLD   SANGERFEST. 


2/5 


like  drug-stores,  and  the  invalids  drank  to  each  other's  better 
health  in  cod-liver  oil  until  they  smelled  like  ancient  fishermen. 

Mr.  Crank  moved  out  to  Fredericksburg, — a  town  built  on  a 
high  hill,  and  inhabited  by  Germans  and  beer-kegs.  He  took 
lodgings  in  the  only  hotel  in  the  place,  the  Schwiker  House, 
kept  by  a  jolly  Teuton,  who  was  so  rosy  and  cheerful  that  his 
very  presence  was  better  than  the  prescription  of  a  doctor,  and 
one  of  his  jokes  as  good  as  a  whole  barrel  of  cod-liver  oil.  This 
old  Sangerfest  took  quite  a  liking  to  the  invalid,  and  determined 
to  do  all  in  his  power  to  make  him  comfortable,  and  to  cure 
him  if  possible. 

I  saw  the  sick  man  on  his  way  to  Fredericksburg.  He  was 
weak,  and  hardly  able  to  sit  in  the  wagon.  Three  weeks  after- 
wards I  met  the  landlord  of  the  Schwiker  House. 

"  Hello,  old  Schutzen-Verein,  where  is  our  sick  friend  ? " 

"  Oh,  dot  sick  man  ?  He  vas  gone  died  already  ;  but  I  cures 
him  all  de  same,  better  as  goot." 

"  How  was  that  ? " 

"  Vel,  I  tole  you  how  it  vas. 
he  cooms  to  mine  house  yet. 
He  vas  not  like  dot  feller  what 
pays  nodings,  and  vants  der 
pest  room  in  der  house.  No, 
mine  grashus  !  he  vas  not  like 
dot.  He  care  not  much  for 
any  tings.  He  makes  no 
racket  like  dot  oder  feller, 
because  dose  sheets  vas  damp. 
His  abbetite  vas  so  schmall 
he  eats  not  much  :  so  I  likes 
dot  man,  und  I  gives  him 
some  exdra  tings  dot  I  not 
scharge  for.  I  nurse  him  all 

der  time  ;   but  he  got  pooty  bad,  and  more  worse  every  day, 
and  von  time  he  calls  me  to  his  room,  und  he  says,  — 

" '  Fritz,  I  am  going  dead,  und  I  vants  dose  remains  sent  to 
New  York  to  mine  vife.'  He  say,  '  Fritz,  you  vas  mine  friend  ; 
you  vas  goot  to  me ;  you  vill  not  refuse  to  promise  to  a  dead 


Dot  man,  he  vas  very  sick  ven 


OLD    SANGERFEST. 


276 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


man  vat  he  ask.  Mine  vife,  she  vas  a  goot  womans,  Fritz  : 
she  expected  dot  I  vould  be  cured  down  here.  She  vill  be 
sorry,  but  you  express  me  to  her  ven  I  vas  dead  already.' 

"  I  had  to  make  dot  promise :  I  could  not  refuse.  I  all  der 
time  keeps  mine  promise  to  a  dead  man  ;  and  ven  he  vas  dead 
as  vun  door-knob,  I  tinks  vat  I  do  mit  him.  It  vas  a  very  hot 
time,  und  he  vould  be  decombosed  if  I  sheep  him  to  New  York. 
I  tought  me  of  a  vay,  und  I  say,  '  Fritz,  you  vas  schmart,  —  de 
doctor  could  not  cure  him  :  you  can  cure  him,  py  shiminy ! ' 

So  I  dakes  und  puts  him  in 
a  bath-tub  mit  pickle,  und  I 
pickles  him  two,  tree  day. 
Den  I  dakes  und  puts  von 
schugar  -  barrel  on  top  mit 
anoder,  und  hangs  him  up  in 
der  barrels,  und  I  schmokes 
him  for  a  veek.  Den  I 
sheep  him  to  his  vife  in  a 
box  mit  shtraw.  I  tole  dot 
man  ven  he  cooms  I  vould 
cure  him.  He  gone  died  al- 
ready ;  but  I  cures  dot  re- 
mains anyhow,  py  schingo ! " 
When  Texas  was  admitted 
into  the  Union,  the  State  re- 
tained control  of  her  public 
domain.  The  title  to  all 
lands  since  disposed  of  em- 
anates from  the  State.  During  the  early  history  of  Texas, 
liberal  donations  of  land  were  made  to  settlers,  and  to  the 
soldiers  who  fought  in  the  war  with  Mexico.  Land-certificates 
were  issued  to  those  entitled  to  them  ;  and  these  certificates 
entitled  the  parties  receiving  them,  or  their  assignees,  to  sur- 
vey, and  to  acquire  title  to,  the  number  of  acres  covered  by  the 
certificate,  the  land  to  be  selected  out  of  any  part  of  the  public 
domain.  Certificates  for  immense  quantities  of  public  land 
have  been  given  to  those  companies  that  have  built  railroads 
in  Texas.  The  land  for  which  these  certificates  have  been 


CURING    A    CONSUMPTIVE. 


SPANISH  LAND-MEASURE.  277 

issued  can  now  be  bought  at  prices  ranging  from  fifty  cents 
to  one  dollar  per  acre.  In  the  original  titles  of  Texas  land,  the 
quantity  was  expressed  in  varas,  labors,  and  leagues  ;  and  even 
now  it  is  all  measured  by  varas. 

SPANISH    LAND-MEASURE. 

i  vara 33 £  inches. 

i  acre 5^646    square  varas  (4,840  square  yards). 

I  labor 1,000,000    square  varas  (177  acres). 

£  league          ....  8,333,333    square  varas  (1,476  acres). 

i  league         ....  25,000,000    square  varas  (4,428  acres). 

i  league  and  labor         .        .  26,000,000    square  varas  (4,605  acres). 

To  find  the  number  of  acres  in  a  given  number  of  square  varas,  divide 
by  5,646,  fractions  rejected. 

Land  improved  and  ready  for  cultivation  can  be  rented  at 
from  three  to  six  dollars  per  acre,  the  rent  payable  when  the 
crops  are  marketed.  Land-owners  will  rent  land,  and  furnish 
the  tenant  with  a  house  to  live  in,  and  with  all  the  tools  and 
teams  necessary  to  cultivate  the  land.  He  will  accept,  as  rent, 
one-half  of  the  crop  raised.  If  the  tenant  furnishes  tools  and 
teams,  the  land-owner  gets  one-third  of  the  corn  and  one-fourth 
of  the  cotton.  When  necessary,  the  land-owner  furnishes  pro- 
visions, for  which  the  tenant  pays  out  of  his  part  of  the  crop. 
The  law  says  that  the  crop  cannot  be  moved  from  the  farm 
until  the  rent,  and  allowance  in  money  and  provisions,  are  paid 
to  the  land-owner.  Thousands  of  farmers  have  made  enough 
money  in  a  year  or  two,  on  rented  land,  to  purchase  farms  for 
themselves.  In  doing  this,  the  industrious  German  is  especially 
liable  to  be  successful. 

Article  2335  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the  State  of  Texas 
provides  that  the  following  property  shall  be  reserved  to  every 
family,  exempt  from  attachment  or  execution,  and  every  other 
species  of  forced  sale  for  the  payment  of  debts,  except  as  here- 
inafter provided. 

"  i.  The  homestead  of  a  family;  2.  All  household  and  kitchen  furniture; 
3.  Any  lot  or  lots  in  a  cemetery  held  for  the  purpose  of  sepulture ;  4.  All 
implements  of  husbandry ;  5.  All  tools,  apparatus,  and  books  belonging  to 
any  profession  or  trade ;  6.  The  family  library,  and  all  family  portraits  and 
pictures ;  7.  Five  milch  cows  and  their  calves ;  8.  Two  yoke  of  work-oxen, 


278  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

with  necessary  yokes  and  chains;  9.  Two  horses  and  one  wagon;  10.  One 
carriage  or  buggy;  n.  One  gun;  12.  Twenty  hogs;  13.  Twenty  head  of 
sheep;  14.  All  saddles,  bridles,  and  harness  necessary  for  the  use  of  the 
family;  15.  All  provisions  and  forage  on  hand  for  home  consumption;  and 
r 6.  All  current  wages  for  personal  services. 

"  ART.  2336.  The  '  homestead '  of  a  family,  not  in  a  town  or  city,  shall 
consist  of  not  more  than  two  hundred  acres  of  land,  which  may  be  in  one 
or  more  parcels,  with  the  improvements  thereon ;  the  homestead  in  a  city, 
town,  or  village,  consisting  of  a  lot  or  lots,  not  to  exceed  in  value  five  thou- 
sand dollars  at  the  time  of  their  designation  as  the  homestead,  without  ref- 
erence to  the  value  of  any  improvements  thereon ;  provided  that  the  same 
shall  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  a  home,  or  as  a  place  to  exercise  the  calling 
or  business  of  the  head  of  a  family ;  provided,  also,  that  any  temporary 
renting  of  the  homestead  shall  not  change  the  character  of  the  same  when 
no  other  homestead  has  been  acquired." 


The  homestead-law  allows  every  head  of  a  family  in  Texas 
two  hundred  acres  of  land  that  cannot  be  sold  for  debt.  Some 
people,  who  have  not  got  two  hundred  acres  of  land,  are  envi- 
ous enough  to  say  that  this  law  was  made  to  enable  the  horny- 
handed  farmer  to  sustain  his  family  on  fancy  groceries,  and  to 
buy  a  piano  for  his  daughter.  They  say  it  makes  him  feel,  that, 
whatever  may  be  his  misfortune,  there  is  one  little  spot  on  this 
earth  he  can  call  his  own.  The  thought  of  death  is  robbed  of 
its  sting,  and  he  has  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  his  off- 
spring will  be  provided  for,  even  if  the  children  of  his  creditors 
have  to  content  themselves  with  cornbread  and  a  jew's-harp. 

The  operation  of  the  Texas  homestead-law  makes  death  a 
luxury,  not  only  to  the  debtor,  but  also  to  the  ruined  creditor. 
It  is  said  that  it  enables  the  bone  and  sinew  of  a  country  to 
feel  calm  and  serene  in  the  presence  of  an  execution  for  debt, 
and  encourages  the  honest  farmer  to  defraud  the  merchant  who 
sells  him  goods  on  credit. 

The  advocates  of  this  law  say  it  is  a  wise  measure,  and  was 
made  to  protect  the  wife  and  children  from  the  action  of  the 
spendthrift  head  of  a  family.  Its  provisions  prevent  him  from 
mortgaging  the  homestead.  A  Texan  who  does  not  own  more 
than  two  hundred  acres  of  land  never  has  been  known  to  sit  in 
the  back-room,  and  turn  a  bulldog  loose  in  the  front-yard  on 
the  first  day  of  the  month.  The  circumstances  do  not  demand 


THE    TEXAS  HOMESTEAD  LAW.  279 

any  such  precaution.  He  can  afford  to  be  courteous  to  those 
who  dun  him,  to  be  even  jocular  with  them  on  the  subject  of 
his  debts.  He  invites  them  to  go  through  his  house,  and  see 
the  modern  improvements  he  has  introduced  at  their  expense. 
This  is  the  reason  that  the  facilities  for  amassing  a  fortune  in 
Texas  are  so  profuse.  Nowhere  else  can  a  man,  on  such  a 
small  capital,  and  in  the  same  length  of  time,  reach  to  such 
affluence  as  the  homestead-law  enables  him  to  attain  in  Texas. 
Circulars  inviting  immigration  to  Texas,  and  describing  the 
advantages  of  the  State,  never  fail  to  draw  a  touching  picture 
of  the  beauty  of  the  homestead-law,  and  the  facilities  it  affords 
for  evading  the  absurd  and  antique  practice  of  paying  debts. 

When  it  is  hinted,  as  it  very  frequently  is,  to  the  friends  of 
the  homestead-law,  that  justice  seems  to  be  lop-sided  in  the 
matter,  and  that  the  wives  and  children  of  the  storekeepers 
who  supply  the  farmer,  and  who  are  daily  defrauded  by  the 
action  of  the  law,  have  rights  as  well  as  the  farmer's  family, 
and  are  deserving  of  equal  projection  with  them,  they  reply, 
that  "  The  law  does  not  compel  the  storekeeper  to  sell  goods 
on  credit,  therefore  there  is  no  injustice  done  him  ;  that,  if  he 
does  sell  on  credit,  it  is  at  his  own  risk,  for  he  is  supposed  to 
know  the  law ;  that  he  can  turn  farmer,  and  get  the  benefit  of 
the  law,  if  he  so  desires,  or  he  can  sell  out  his  stock  of  goods, 
invest  in  a  city  lot,  build  a  fine  house  on  it  that  no  one  can 
touch  for  debt,  then  live  on  credit,  and  thus  enjoy  the  blessings 
of  the  beneficent  homestead-law." 

This  reminds  one  of  the  king  of  the  island  of  Kawahowa  and 
his  parliament.  The  majority  of  the  king's  subjects  made  a 
living  by  fishing.  The  king  and  parliament  declared  that  no 
person  should  pay  to  the  fishermen  more  than  a  certain  fixed 
price  for  fish,  —  about  one-fourth  of  their  value.  The  fishermen 
waited  on  his  Majesty,  and  stated  that  they  would  be  unable 
to  make  a  living  by  selling  fish  at  the  prices  specified,  and 
hinted  at  the  injustice  of  the  law.  His  Majesty  laid  the  matter 
before  his  parliament,  the  members  of  which  were  noted  for 
their  ability  to  consume  vast  quantities  of  the  brain-fertilizer  in 
question.  They  decided  that  "the  decree  does  not  compel 
those  fishermen  to  be  fishermen.  They  need  not  catch  and 


280 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


sell  fish  unless  they  so  desire.  Knowing  the  law,  they  have  no 
one  to  blame  if  they  fail  to  make  a  success  of  the  business. 
There  is,  therefore,  no  injustice  done  them.  God  save  the 
king!" 

Besides  the  advantages  that  the  homestead-law  offers  to  the 
settler  in  Texas,  there  are  many  others  that  he  shares  when  he 
casts  his  lot  with  the  people  of  this  great  State. 


APPROACHING  SAN  ANTONIO. 


281 


CHAPTER   XXI. 


WE  drew  near  to  San  Antonio 
we  saw  many  Mexicans.  More 
than  half  the  people  we  met  or 
passed  on  the  road,  the  day 
we  reached  San  Antonio,  were 
Mexican  wagoners,  —  some 
driving  mule-teams,  others 
driving  oxen ;  the  oxen  not 
pulling  the  load,  but  pushing 
it  with  their  heads,  a  cross-bar 
on  the  front  of  the  pole  being 
strapped  to  their  horns  with 
leather  thongs.  The  teamsters 
plod  silently  along  beside  their 
slow  teams :  they  never  seem 

to  be  in  a  hurry,  but  act  as  if  they  had  very  little  to  do,  and  all 
time  to  do  it  in. 

I  have  never  heard  a  Mexican  teamster  sing,  but  I  have  heard 
him  sometimes  curse  his  oxen.  (Wonder  if  any  one  ever  did 
drive  an  ox-team  without  cursing  them  !)  Cursing  an  ox  in  the 
soft,  musical,  Spanish  language,  sounds  like  a  benediction  in 
English.  When  an  ox  stalls,  or  becomes  unusually  obstinate, 
the  Mexican  driver  realizes  how  inadequate  the  Spanish  lan- 
guage is  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  situation ;  and  it  is 
said  that  on  such  occasions  he  has  recourse  to  English  ex- 
pletives. 

We  met  an  old  Mexican  riding  on  a  donkey.  He  rode  with- 
out either  saddle  or  bridle,  and  sat  so  far  back  on  the  donkey 
that  his  coat,  hanging  down,  covered  the  tail  of  the  animal. 


282 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


Afterwards  this  was  a  common  sight  to  us.     All  Mexicans  ride 
donkeys  in  the  same  manner. 
"  Buenos  dias,  senor !  " 
"  Good-morning ! " 
"  Is  this  the  road  to  San  Antonio  ?  " 
"  Ouien  sabe  ? " 

"  How  far  is  it  to  San  Antonio  ? " 
"  No  entiendo,  senor." 

We  put  a  variety  of  questions  to  the  old  man,  and  the  doctor 
went  so  far  as  to  recite  to  him  two  verses  of  "  The  Raven  ; "  but 
his  invariable  reply  was,  "  Quien  sabe  ?  "  ("  Who  knows  ?  ")  or 
"  No  entiendo  "  ("  I  do  not  understand  "). 

The  Mexican,  however,  seemed  to  enjoy  the  conversation 
very  much,  and  bowed  and  smiled,  and  bowed  again,  when  we 
parted  with  him. 

This  conversation  reminded  me  of  Michael  Sullivan's  first 
lesson  in  Spanish.  Michael  was  a  hardy  and  honest  Celt.  He 

left  the  old  country  with  the 
price  of  a  good  farm  in  his 
pocket,  came  to  Atascoso 
County,  Texas,  and  bought  a 
piece  of  raw  land,  —  what  is 
usually  called  an  unimproved 
place.  As  he  "  couldn't  get 
along  wid  the  naygurs,"  he 
hired  some  of  his  own  coun- 
trymen to  clear  the  timber  ofr 
the  place.  Needing  more  la- 
borers, and  having  mentioned 
the  matter  to  his  neighbor, 
Williams,  Mr.  Williams 
brought  a  Mexican  to  him. 
"  Mr.  Sullivan,  here  is  a  Mexican  who  wants  work.  I  think 
he  will  suit  you." 
"  Can  he  chop  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes  !   he  can  do  most  any  thing.     I  have  found  him  a 
good  hand,  and  he'll  work  for  fifteen  dollars  a  month." 
"  An'  foind  himsilf  ?  " 


'CAN    HE    CHOP?' 


MICHAEL  SULLIVAN'S  SPANISH  LESSON,        283 


"Yes  ;  but  he  can't  speak  a  word  of  English." 

"  All  the  betther  for  that.  I  can't  spake  a  word  av  Mixican, 
and  I  want  to  larn  it.  I'll  tache  him  English,  an'  he  can  tache 
me  the  Mixican." 

"  Yes  ;  a  good  idea." 

"  Is  these  Mixieans  obaydient  to  their  supariors  ?     I  hope 
they  are  more  biddable  than 
the  naygurs." 

"  You  need  not  fear  that, 
Mr.  Sullivan.  This  man 
Rodriguez  will  do  any  thing 
you  tell  him  to  do." 

"Well,  thin,  Rody,  me 
boy,"  said  Michael,  "  I've 
hired  ye.  Now  take  this 
axe,  an'  whale  away  at  thim 
postoaks  down  there." 

"  No  entiendo,  senor," 
said  the  Mexican. 

"  The     divil     and     Tom 

Walker  !  Listen  to  what  he  is  afther  sayin',  the  haythen.  He 
don't  intind  to.  But  the  divil's  cure  to  ye,  I'll  make  ye  intind 
to.  See  here,  now :  I've  hired  ye  to  work  a  month  for  fifteen 
dollars.  No  backin'  out,  now.  Take  that  axe,  an'  don't  give 
any  lip,  but  go  to  work  right  at  wanst." 

"  No  entiendo,"  said  the  Mexican. 

"  Ye  dont,  eh  ? " 

Off  went  Michael's  coat ;  and,  before  the  greaser  could  realize 
what  his  new  master's  vigorous  demonstrations  meant,  he  found 
himself  sprawling  on  his  back,  his  mouth  full  of  blood  and  sand, 
and  a  vague  idea  in  his  Aztec  brain  that  he  had  been  struck  by 
lightning.  Further  bodily  harm  would  have  been  done  to  him 
had  Mr.  Williams  not  interfered,  and  explained  to  the  irate 
Michael  what  the  Mexican  meant.  Michael  was  at  last  molli- 
fied, and  shook  hands  with  the  discomfited  greaser,  but  inti- 
mated that  the  "  haythen  desarved  all  he  got  for  not  spaking 
like  a  Christian."  This  was  Mr.  Sullivan's  first  Spanish 
lesson. 


TACHIN'    A    HAYTHEN. 


284  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

After  parting  with  the  old  Mexican,  we  hurried  on,  that  we 
might  reach  San  Antonio  before  night. 

As  the  last  rays  of  the  setting  sun  were  glorifying  the  hill- 
tops around  us,  we  looked  down  into  the  valley,  and  there,  below 
us,  in  the  peaceful  shadows  of  evening,  lay  the  "quaint  old  city" 
of  San  Antonio,  — the  birthplace  of  Texas  liberty,  —  the  scene 
of  heroic  deeds,  —  the  spot  that  "  Freedom,  from  her  mountain 
heights,"  used  to  grieve  over,  until  her  grief  was  assuaged  by 
the  sacrifice  offered  up  at  the  Alamo,  where  one  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  Americans  held  the  fort  for  eleven  days  against  a 
force  of  two  thousand  Mexicans,  and  where  all  the  one  hundred 
and  eighty-eight  Americans  were  killed,  though  not  until  thrice 
as  many  dead  Mexicans  gave  evidence  of  the  prowess  of  the 
heroic  band  led  by  Bowie,  Travis,  and  Crockett. 

As  we  were  too  hungry  to  shed  a  tear,  or  to  indulge  in  the 
thoughts  and  sentiments  appropriate  to  such  a  scene,  we  turned 
our  attention  to  our  jaded  ponies,  and  by  gentle  whipping,  and 
an  energetic  use  of  the  spur,  encouraged  them  so  much,  that  in 
half  an  hour  we  stood  in  the  hall  of  the  Menger  Hotel,  and  re- 
alized that  we  were  in  a  city  that,  in  historic  interest,  romantic 
surroundings,  and  a  strange,  foreign  aspect,  has  no  equal  in  the 
United  States. 

Historians  agree  that  in  1602  there  was  a  settlement  at  or 
near  the  present  site  of  the  city  of  San  Antonio.  This  settle- 
ment was  called  San  Fernando.  I  have  obtained  from  the  old 
records  the  following  translation  of  the  original  royal  order 
creating  the  Villa  de  San  Fernando.  This,  I  think,  settles  the 
date  of  the  foundation  of  the  town  now  called  San  Antonio. 

DON  JUAN  DE  ACUNA,  Marquis  de  Casa  Fuerte,  Knight  of  the  Order  of  Santiago, 
Commander  of  Adelpha  en  los  de  Alcantara,  representing  his  Majesty,  Supreme 
Military  Commander,  Civic  Executive  Officer,  Viceroy,  Governor  and  Captain- 
General  of  New  Spain,  etc. : 

In  that  we  have  given  several  provinces,  from  this  date  forward,  for 
the  use  and  benefit  of  the  fifteen  families  which,  by  the  right  of  royal 
order,  are  coming  from  the  Canary  Islands,  and  which  are  now  on  their 
way  to  demand  their  right  to  possess  the  country  that  has  been  assigned 
them,  among  which  is  the  presidio  de  San  Antonio  de  Bexar ;  and  the 
necessary  orders  having  been  given  by  Brig.  Pedro  Rivera,  and  ap- 


ROYAL    ORDER,   A.D.   1730.  285 

proved  by  the  auditor-general  of  war :  therefore,  by  these  presents,  I  do 
order  the  governor  of  the  province  of  Texas,  Don  Juan  Antonio  Busta- 
mento,  and,  in  case  of  his  absence  or  other  impediment,  the  captain  of 
the  said  presidio  de  San  Antonio,  to  take  charge  of  the  list  remitted  of 
said  fifteen  families.  He  will,  make  a  note  of  their  names  and  surnames, 
and  also  of  those  of  their  parents,  and  the  county  each  of  them  was 
born  in ;  he  will  also  make  a  note  of  their  age,  and  as  to  whether  they 
be  single  or  married ;  take  the  names  of  their  wives  and  the  parents 
of  their  wives,  and  record  the  place  of  their  birth ;  and  make  record, 
also,  as  to  whether  their  wives  have  children,  the  number  of  them,  and 
the  names  and  ages  of  such  children.  And  by  virtue  of  this  despatch 
and  law  6,  book  iv.  of  the  Recapitulations  of  the  Laws  of  the  West 
Indies,  in  which  his  Majesty  commands  to  honor  all  families,  sons,  and 
the  legitimate  descendants  of  all  those  who  have  pledged  themselves  to 
erect  towns,  and  fulfilled  their  promises,  the  heads  of  these  families  are 
declared  noblemen  in  that  city  which  they  propose  to  erect,  or  in  any 
city  of  the  West  Indies,  and  will  be  recognized  and  held  as  noblemen 
and  gentlemen  of  the  Kingdom  of  Castile,  according  to  the  grants  and 
laws  of  Spain.  By  these  presents,  therefore,  we  command  that  all  of 
them,  and  each  and  every  one  of  the  heads  of  these  fifteen  families, 
their  sons,  and  legitimate  descendants  of  said  noblemen,  to  be  honored 
and  respected  as  all  the  noblemen  of  the  Kingdom  of  Castile,  according 
to  the  grants  and  laws  of  Spain,  and  as  his  Majesty  wishes  done.  And 
by  virtue  of  this  declaration,  the  necessary  documents  will  be  issued  by 
my  superior  government  whenever  demanded.  This  despatch  will  re- 
main in  the  custody  of  the  government  at  San  Fernando,  and  you  will 
inform  the  families,  when  they  arrive,  of  the  contents  of  this  order. 

Be  it  further  understood,  that  this  despatch  authorizes  the  governor 
to  set  six  for  councilmen,  one  for  sheriff,  one  for  notary  public,  and 
another  for  chief  justice  and  custodian  of  public  property.  These  shall 
have  authority  to  appoint  two  justices  of  the  peace.  The  governor  will 
attend  personally  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  council,  take  the  oath  of 
office  of  those  officers,  and  place  them  in  possession  of  their  respective 
positions,  and  will  issue  their  commissions  •  a  certified  copy  of  which 
proceedings  he  will  remit  to  me  for  my  approval :  and  he  will  also  attend 
the  first  election  for  justices  of  the  peace,  and  inform  them  of  the  systems 
and  rules  they  will  have  to  observe,  of  which  testimony  must  likewise  be 
remitted.  And  this  being  the  first  political  town  of  this  colony  to  be 
founded  in  the  province  of  Texas,  I  declare  it  the  capital  of  the  province. 
It  will  be  named  "  La  Villa  de  San  Fernando  ;  "  but  to  his  Majesty  is  re- 


286  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

served  the  authority  of  confirming  the  name,  and  selecting  the  coat  of 
arms,  according  to  his  royal  pleasure,  subsequent  to  his  being  furnished 
with  testimony,  according  to  these  presents,  by  the  said  governor  or 
captain. 

(Signed)  MARQUIS  DE  CASA  FUERTE. 

By  command  of  his  Excellency, 

ANT"ONIO  DE  AVITES. 
Dated  at  the  city  of  Mexico,  this 
28th  November,  A.D.  1730. 

From  the  time  that  we  arrived  in  San  Antonio  until  we  left, 
we  were  continually  being  surprised  by  strange  and  un-Ameri- 
can sights.  The  city,  with  its  narrow  streets  and  queer  build- 
ings, is  much  more  like  a  provincial  town  in  France  or  Spain 
than  like  our  rectangular  American  cities.  The  Menger  Hotel 
has  a  large  courtyard  inside  the  building.  This  yard  is  about 
a  hundred  feet  square,  is  flagged  with  large,  flat  stones,  has 
trees  growing  in  it,  and  a  stream  of  water  flowing  through  it. 
Galleries  run  around  the  four  sides  of  the  buildings  that  sur- 
round the  courtyard.  Stone  stairways  lead  from  this  courtyard 
to  the  hotel  bedrooms.  The  doors  of  the  rooms  on  the  ground 
floor  open  from  the  courtyard  ;  and  these  bedrooms  are  carpet - 
less,  and  stone-flagged  like  the  yard.  The  first  night  that  I 
occupied  an  iron  bedstead  in  one  of  these  cells,  and  lay  awake 
for  hours  listening  to  a  mocking-bird  whistling  in  a  fig-tree  at 
my  window,  I  felt  as  if  the  United  States  must  be  a  long  way 
off. 

San  Antonio  is  called  the  Alamo  City,  or  the  City  of  the 
Alamo.  The  inhabitants  are  very  proud  of  the  Alamo.  They 
consider  it  a  sacred  duty  to  let  the  stranger  know  that  he  is  in 
the  city  of  the  Alamo,  and  ought  to  be  grateful  that  there  is 
such  a  place  to  come  to.  The  first  thing  that  I  noticed,  when 
I  stepped  out  at  the  side-door  of  the  hotel  in  the  morning,  was 
an  ice-wagon.  I  noticed  it  because  the  street  was  not  wide 
enough  for  both  of  us,  and  one  of  the  wheels  took  a  chip  off  my 
leg.  "  Alamo  Ice  Company "  was  painted  on  the  side  of  the 
wagon.  I  walked  across  the  plaza  to  the  Alamo  drug-store  to 
get  some  arnica.  An  aged  gentleman  sitting  in  front  of  the 


CITY  OF  THE   ALAMO.  287 

store  seemed  to  take  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  my  misfortune, 
and  recommended  a  bottle  of  Alamo  liniment,  —  a  medicine 
patented  by  the  proprietor  of  the  drug-store.  The  aged  gentle- 
man, knowing  I  was  a  stranger,  volunteered  a  vast  amount  of 
information.  "This  is  the  Alamo  plaza,"  he  said;  "and  that 
square  building  in  the  centre  of  the  plaza  is  the  Alamo  meat- 
market." 

From  where  I  stood  I  could  see  the  Alamo  livery-stable, 
the  Alamo  cigar-store,  and  the  Alamo  tin-shop.  I  was  told 
that  around  the  corner  I  could  find  the  Alamo  bakery,  the 
Alamo  brewery,  the  engine-house  of  the  Alamo  Fire  Company, 
and  the  rooms  of  the  Alamo  Literary  Society.  The  aged  gen- 
tleman said  there  was  some  talk  of  building  an  Alamo  monu- 
ment, that  the  name  and  fame  of  the  historic  spot  might  be 
kept  before  the  people ;  and  I  could  not  detect  any  sarcasm  in 
the  tone  of  his  voice  when  he  said  it.  I  said  that  I  was  anxious 
to  see  the  sacred  premises, — the  cradle  in  which  Texas  liberty 
was  first  rocked.  The  aged  gentleman  said  he  would  take 
pleasure  in  showing  it  to  me.  We  walked  across  the  plaza, 
and  around  the  market-house. 

"There,  sir,  is  the  old  church  of  the  Alamo!"  and  the 
aged  gentleman  anchored  himself  to  the  pavement  with  his 
cane,  swelled  out  his  chest,  and  pointed  proudly  across  the 
way. 

"  What !  that  flat-roofed  building  with  the  tree  in  front  ? " 

"  No,  no  !  that  is  the  Alamo  saloon,  —  a  point  of  interest  that 
we  shall  visit  presently." 

"  Ah  !  now  I  see,  —  the  structure  with  the  striped  hitching- 
post  in  front.  Quaint  old  building,  very  !  " 

"  Pshaw,  no  !  That's  the  Alamo  Tonsorial  Arena,  as  they  call 
it,  where  you  can  get  shaved,  and  have  your  hair  amputated,  for 
four  bits.  Look  to  the  left  of  that,  —  right  over  there." 

Now  I  see  the  original  godfather  of  all  these  bits  of  scenery 
he  has  been  pointing  out.  It  is  a  low,  massive  structure,  with 
an  arched  doorway,  over  which  the  Spanish  coat-of-arms,  the 
date  1745,  and  other  carved  work,  are  discernible.  Four  arched 
niches  in  the  wall,  intended  for  images  of  saints,  also  adorn 
the  front. 


288  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Until  a  short  time  before  I  saw  the  Alamo,  it  had  been  used 
by  the  United-States  Government  as  a  quartermaster's  depot, 
where  old  saddles,  tobacco,  blankets  for  Indians,  and  other 
munitions  of  frontier  war,  were  stored.  At  the  time  of  my 
visit,  the  building  was  used  by  a  prominent  San  Antonio  mer- 
chant as  a  warehouse  in  which  he  stored  groceries  and  vegeta- 
bles. 

As  the  door  was  thrown  open,  and  we  stepped  into  the  vault- 
like  chamber, —  the  chapel  of  the  old  Alamo  mission,  —  I  sat 
down  on  a  beer-keg,  and  allowed  my  mind  to  wander  back  into 
the  past.  Then  I  took  out  my  note-book,  and  wrote  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

"  The  Alamo,  with  its  crumbling  walls,  as  it  stands  to-day,  is  a  monu- 
ment to  freedom  that  fires  the  blood,  thrills  the  hearts,  and  fills  with  admira- 
tion the  minds,  of  all  who  have  heard  its  story.  The  scene  of  the  most  heroic 
defence  that  has  ever  been  emblazoned  on  the  pages  of  history ;  the  spot 
where  Bowie,  Crockett,  and  Travis,  with  their  noble  band,  scorning  to  sur- 
render, fought  until  there  were  none  left  to  tell  the  tale ;  the  place  where 
were  consummated  deeds  of  valor  that  far  outshine  the  feats  of  arms  of  the 
noble  Romans  'who  kept  the  bridge  in  the  brave  days  of  old,'  —  what  coun- 
try can  show  such  self-sacrifice  for  the  good  of  others !  what  nation  has 
been  so  honored  by  the  prowess  and  patriotism  of  her  sons !  what  people 
have  been  so  immortalized  by  such  glorious  deeds !  These  pioneers  on 
freedom's  frontier,  and  their  acts,  will  they  not  be  embalmed  in  song  and 
story  yet  to  come  ?  The  memory  of  the  heroes  of  the  Alamo  shall  never 
perish  until  the  granite  hills  themselves  shall  crumble  into  the  chaos  of 
matter's  final  end.  It  will  remain  a  living  influence  as  long  as  noble  deeds 
have  power  to  call  forth  the  admiration  of  men.  No  statue  or  monument  is 
needed  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the  valiant  patriots  who  gave  their  lives 
a  sacrifice  for  the  liberty  of  unborn  generations.  Would  memorial  marble 
outlast  the  gratitude  and  hero-worship  in  the  hearts  of  the  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  Texas,  men  and  women  whose  heritage  of  freedom  was  bought 
with  the  blood  of  heroes,  —  heroes  than  whom  the  world  has  never  seen 
greater? — Defeated  not  by  superior  strategy,  conquered  not  by  greater 
courage,  but  annihilated  by  overwhelming  force  of  numbers.  What  a  com- 
mentary on  their  chivalric  heroism  is  the  legend  inscribed  on  the  monument 
constructed  of  the  blood-stained  stones  of  the  Alamo !  —  '  Thermopylae  had 
its  messenger  of  defeat :  the  Alamo  had  none.' " 

"  Do  you  see  where  them  boxes  of  soda-crackers  are  ?  Well, 
that's  where  the  baptismal  font  used  to  be,"  said  the  aged  gen- 
tleman. 


THE  ALAMO. 


289 


If  he  had  not  interrupted  me,  and  broken  the  current  of  my 
thoughts,  I  was  going  on  to  write  a  history  of  the  siege  of  the 
Alamo ;  but  the  aged  gentleman  was  yearning  to  talk,  and  it 
would  have  been  cruel  not  to  have  allowed  him  to  vent  some 
of  the  ancient  lore  that  I  saw  he  was  full  of. 

I  had  read  a  great  many  newspaper  articles,  as  well  as  his- 


THE   ALAMO. 


tories  and  books,  that  had  been  written  about  the  battle  of  the 
Alamo,  and  was,  therefore,  a  little  mixed  on  the  subject, 
although  I  recognized  some  of  the  historic  spots  at  once. 
Here,  to  the  left,  was  the  spot  where  Travis  fell  dead,  bayo- 
netted  beside  the  gun  that  he  had  used  with  such  deadly  effect 
on  the  advancing  Mexican  host.  Again,  in  the  next  room,  I 
19 


290  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

recognized  the  place  where  he  breathed  his  last,  with  a  smile 
of  triumph  on  his  brow,  a  bullet  in  his  brain,  and  a  Mexican 
officer  of  rank  impaled  on  his  sword.  Moreover,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  aged  gentleman,  I  found  the  place  where 
the  porte-cochere  had  been,  and  in  front  of  which,  when 
the  massacre  was  almost  ended,  Gen.  Castrillo  begged  Santa 
Anna  to  spare  the  life  of  Travis ;  but  the  tyrant  motioned  to 
a  file  of  soldiers,  and  Travis,  as  he  stood  defiantly  in  the 
narrow  entrance,  with  his  shattered  sword  in  his  hand,  re- 
ceived a  charge  of  musketry,  and  fell  pierced  with  a  dozen 
bullets. 

These  and  many  other  spots  in  the  neighborhood,  on  which 
the  hero  yielded  up  his  life  so  frequently,  I  recognized ;  and  I 
was  so  affected  by  the  sacredness  of  the  place,  that  I  accom- 
panied the  old  gentleman  to  the  Alamo  saloon  to  —  to  conceal 
my  emotions. 

When  we  returned,  said  I,  "  Colonel,  where  is  the"  sacred 
spot  where  Crockett  stood  in  the  doorway,  and  choked  the 
passage  with  the  remains  of  the  Mexicans  that  he  brained  with 
the  butt  of  his  gun  ? " 

"  Here,"  said  the  aged  gentleman,  leading  me  into  a  small 
room  with  massive  walls,  "he  took  his  position  close  to  the 
door,  and  piled  dead  Mexicans  on  top  of  each  other,  until  the 
doorway  was  full,  and  he  was  killed  by  a  bullet  that  entered 
that  little  window  up  there." 

After  I'had  gazed  with  indescribable  feelings  of  reverential 
awe  at  the  grim,  silent  walls  that  must  have  lent  their  ears  to 
the  din  of  battle,  the  death-yell  of  the  Texans,  and  the  shouts 
of  the  victorious  Mexicans,  I  asked  the  aged  gentleman  if  he 
was  positive  that  this  was  the  identical  spot  where  David 
Crockett  died  like  a  tiger-  at  bay  ;  and  he  said  .there  was  no 
doubt  about  it.  After  being  convinced  of  the  correctness  of 
the  old  gentleman's  historic  knowledge,  it  was  with  feelings 
too  emotional  to  be  described  that  I  begged  him  to  show  me 
the  other  room,  where  Crockett,  emaciated  to  a  skeleton  by 
fever,  had  his  arms  brought  to  his  bedside,  and  there  perished 
in  his  bed,  after  filling  the  room  with  deceased  Mexican  sol- 
diers. 


HEROIC  DEEDS.  291 

The  aged  gentleman  was  not  at  all  discouraged.  He  knew 
the  exact  spot.  The  building  had  been  torn  down,  but  he 
showed  me  where  it  had  formerly  stood. 

Then  I  said,  "  Colonel,  it  seems  to  me  that  you  must  be  a 
Texas  veteran." 

He  seemed  offended  at  my  remark,  and  said  that  he  could 
refer  me,  as  to  character,  to  the  best  citizens  of  San  An- 
tonio. 

While  we  were  inspecting  the  various  portions  of  the  build- 
ing, the  gloom  was  somewhat  increased  by  the  running  com- 
ments of  my  guide. 

"  Do  you  see  that  angle  in  the  wall,  where  those  old  cabbages 
and  those  boxes  of  Limberger  cheese  are  piled  ?  Right  there 
at  least  forty  Mexicans  were  killed.  Phew,  how  they  smell ! 
Reckon  those  Limbergers  must  have  soured !  I  wonder  why 
we  can't  raise  them  right  here,  instead  of  having  to  import 
them  from  the  North." 

"What,  Mexicans?" 

"  No  :  I  mean  cabbages.  In  this  room,  where  so  much  soap 
and  axle-grease  is  stored,  seventeen  wounded  Texans  were  shot. 
We  have  got  a  soap-factory  right  here  in  town  :  we  don't  have 
to  send  to  the  North  for  soap.  '  Thermopylae  had  her  messen- 
ger of  defeat :  the  Alamo  had  none.'  And  it's  a  darned  sight 
better  article  than  the  Yankees  make,  anyhow.  Right  here  is 
the  most  sacred  spot  in  Texas, — and  it  would  bring  sixty  dol- 
lars a  month  if  it  was  rented  out  for  a  saloon,  —  around  which 
the  sacred  memories  of  the  past  cluster." 

There  are  a  great  many  different  and  conflicting  accounts  of 
the  battle ;  so  many,  in  fact,  that  I,  who  have  heard  all  of  them, 
or  nearly  all,  am  harassed  with  doubts  about  any  battle  ever 
having  been  fought  there  at  all.  If  what  the  old  residents  and 
the  historians  say  be  true,  then  there  is  not  a  spot  within  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  of  the  Alamo  where  Travis  did  not  yield  up 
his  life  rather  than  submit  to  the  hireling  foe,  who  would  have 
shot  him,  anyhow.  There  is  not  a  hole  or  corner  in  the  whole 
building  where  Crockett,  while  he  was  sick  in  bed,  did  not 
offer  up,  with  the  butt  of  his  rifle,  from  eleven  to  seventy-five 
Mexicans,  most  of  them  of  high  rank.  Adding  up  all  the 


292 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


Mexicans  the  historians  have  killed,  it  aggregates  a  number 
that  is  fearful  to  even  think  of.  I  have  read  every  thing  that 
has  been  invented  on  the  subject,  including  some  very  poor 
poetry  I  made  myself ;  I  have  had  strangers  from  the  North 
tell  me  all  about  it ;  and  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion,  that, 
after  all,  I  know  very  little  about  the  battle  of  the  Alamo. 


A    SAN    ANTONIO    SCENE    IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTIU 


HISTORY  OF  SAN  ANTONIO. 


293 


CHAPTER    XXII. 


HECKERED  and  bloody  has  been  the 
history  of  San  Antonio,  beginning  in 
the  year  1691,  when  the  warrior  monks 
arrived,  and  began  the  erection  of 
churches  and  the  digging  of  irrigating 
ditches.  For  thirty  years  the  monks 
and  Indians  had  the  country  all  to 
themselves.  They  lived  in  the  beauti- 
ful valley  of  the  San  Antonio  River, 
hundreds  of  miles  away  from  any  form  of  civilization.  The 
monks  converted  and  reduced  the  Indians.  The  Indians  dug 
ditches,  and  once  in  a  while  reduced  an  over-zealous  monk. 
Then,  in  1730,  colonists  began  to  arrive,  and  settle  around  the 
missions.  The  village  of  San  Fernando  was  founded.  It  grew 
slowly ;  and  for  eighty  years  more  the  monks  went  on  with  the 
good  work,  and  the  colonists  kept  store,  and  traded  with  the 
monks,  soldiers,  and  Indians.  In  1810  the  village  had  grown 
to  be  a  place  of  some  importance ;  and  the  king  of  Spain,  by 
royal  decree,  changed  its  name  to  San  Antonio. 

During  the  next  decade  many  fierce  battles  were  fought  be- 
tween the  Royalists  and  Republicans  at  San  Antonio.  The 
city  was  taken  and  lost  and  retaken  by  both  parties.  Some- 
times the  leaders  of  the  conquered  parties  would  have  their 
heads  cut  off,  and  stuck  on  the  ends  of  poles.  At  other  times 
the  defeated  generals  would  only  have  their  throats  cut,  and 
their  bodies  consumed  by  fire.  These  struggles  continued  at 
intervals  until  about  1821,  when  Mexico  separated  from  the 
mother-country.  Then  the  Mexican  Government  invited  immi- 
gration from  the  United  States  to  Texas.  Many  immigrants 


294 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


came  to  San  Antonio,  which  had  five  thousand  inhabitants  in 
1825. 

The  Mexicans,  and  the  descendants  of  the  "  noblemen  of  the 
kingdom  of  Castile,"  soon  began  to  feel  that  they  were  being 
pushed  aside  by  the  new  arrivals  from  the  United  States ;  and 
they  objected  to  it.  The  Anglo-Americans  had  about  four 
times  as  much  energy,  and  fourteen  times  as  much  brains,  as 
the  natives  had.  While  the  warm-haired,  freckled-faced  pil- 
grims from  the  United  States  were  not  exactly  dandies,  they 
insulted  the  sensibilities  and  shocked  the  propriety  of  the  Mexi- 
cans by  washing  their  faces  and  combing  their  hair  several 
times  a  week.  It  stirred  up  bad  blood  to  have  these  heretic 

upstarts  putting  on  clean 
shirts  on  Sunday.  All  these 
innovations  were  foreign, 
and  distasteful  to  the  proud 
and  hauShty  Spanish  cava- 
"«*  The  Mexicans  were 
very  religious,  and  strict  in 
their  observance  of  holi- 
days. They  would  not  work 
on  saints'  days.  The  immi- 
grants had  no  such  scruples. 
The  Mexicans  were  in  the 
habit  of  observing  the  sab- 
bath and  the  saints'  days  by  bull-fighting,  prancing  about  the 
streets  on  horseback,  and  attending  services  at  the  cathedral 
and  in  the  cock-pit.  There  were  about  two  hundred  saints' 
days  in  the  year,  and  the  natives  observed  every  one  of  them. 
The  immigrants  did  not  observe  the  saints'  days  :  hence  the 
devout  Mexican,  on  his  way  to  the  cock-pit,  was  inexpressibly 
shocked  on  seeing  the  heretic  at  work  in  his  field,  desecrating 
Saint  Somebody's  day  with  a  hoe  or  a  plough.  This  confirmed 
the  gradually  growing  impression  among  the  Mexicans,  that 
the  Americans,  like  the  Indians,  needed  reducing.  If  the  Mexi- 
cans had  not  been  loaded  up  to  the  muzzle  with  self-conceit, 
and  had  learned  only  half  as  much  of  history  as  they  had  of 
cock-fighting,  they  would  have  known  that  the  Saxon  races  are 


OBSERVING    SAINTS'    DAYS. 


HISTORY  OF  SAN  ANTONIO.  295 

very  apt  to  reduce  those  who  attempt  to  tamper  with  their 
religious  liberty. 

There  were  two  kinds  of  Indians, — those  who  could  be  re- 
duced, and  those  who  were  not  susceptible  to  Christian  influ- 
ences. But  there  was  only  one  kind  of  American.  He  had  his 
faults ;  but  subservience  to  tyrants  was  not  one  of  them. 

It  may  be  asked,  Why  did  the  Mexican  Government  invite 
the  Americans  to  settle  in  Texas  ?  In  the  first  place,  the  result 
of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  years'  attempt  of  the  Spaniards  to 
civilize  the  Indians  in  Texas  had  not  been  successful.  The 
only  visible  signs  of  their  occupation  of  the  country  for  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  were  a  few  small  towns  and  mission-stations. 
There  were  no  longer  any  tame  Indians  to  speak  of,  and  the 
grand  mission-buildings  were  almost  without  worshippers.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  unreduced  Indians  had  become  more  nu- 
merous ;  and  they  swarmed  about  the  suburbs  of  the  town  to 
such  an  extent,  that  it  was  as  much  as  a  man's  life  was  worth 
to  go  to  market  in  the  morning.  When  a  citizen  did  not  come 
home  to  dinner,  the  meal  was  not  kept  warm  for  him.  It  was 
inferred,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  the  Indians  had  killed  him. 
There  was  no  protection  for  a  man  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the 
military  plaza.  Outside  of  the  actual  heart  of  the  city,  every 
house  had  a  small  fort,  to  which  the  owner  retired  for  protection 
—  when  necessary.  It  consisted  of  a  large  hole  in  the  ground, 
large  enough  to  accommodate  the  whole  family.  The  top  was 
covered  with  a  conical  roof  of  earth  and  mortar  a  few  feet  above 
the  ground,  while  narrow  port-holes  enabled  the  besieged  to 
sweep  the  vicinity  with  their  guns. 

The  columns  of  the  papers  of  those  early  days  teem  with 
Indian  outrages.  Scarcely  a  week  passed  during  which  whole 
families  were  not  swept  from  existence  by  bands  of  raiding 
Indians.  Such  local  items  as  the  following  are  of  continual 
recurrence :  "  We  are  much  indebted  to  Col.  Shepard  for 
laying  on  our  table  a  beautiful  Indian  arrow,  which  he  has  just 
pulled  out  of  his  youngest  child.  Col.  Shepard  lives  on  the  out- 
skirts of  the  town,  where  he  is  much  exposed  to  Indian  raids. 
How  long,  O  Lord,  how  long  shall  we  have  to  put  up  with  this 
nonsense  ?  The  colonel  also  tells  us  that  there  are  two  or 


296  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

three  more  arrows  in  other  members  of  his  family,  which  are 
almost  ready  to  pull  out.  Where  are  the  police  ?  Have  we  an 
ordinance  against  Indians  thus  disturbing  the  peace  and  quiet 
of  families  ?  If  so,  why  is  it  not  enforced  ?  We  need,  how- 
ever, expect  no  relief  until  an  alderman  comes  home  some 
day  from  a  beer-saloon  bristling  with  arrows  like  a  porcupine. 
The  arrows  can  be  seen  at  our  office  by  regular  subscribers 
when  they  come  up  to  settle  for  past  arrearages.  In  the 
midst  of  life  we  are  in  danger  of  being  stuck  full  of  Indian 
arrows." 

So  familiar  had  the  inhabitants  become  with  danger,  and  so 
common  an  occurrence  was  it  for  Indians  to  depredate  on  the 
people,  that  the  press  could  thus  jest  at  what  was  really  a 
serious  inconvenience. 

The  Mexican  population  was  dwindling  away  under  the  con- 
stant Indian  attacks  :  hence  the  Americans  were  invited  over, 
very  much  as  Hengist  and  Horsa  were  invited  to  England  — 
and  with  about  the  same  result. 

From  existing  records  of  the  Indians,  and  of  their  treatment 
by  the  Spaniards,  the  noble  red  man  seems  to  have  been  the 
same  unreliable  savage  in  the  beginning  of  the  century  that  he 
is  to-day,  and  the  Indian  policy  of  the  Spanish  differed  but 
little  from  that  of  the  government  of  the  United  States  at  the 
present  time.  The  following  is  translated  from  an  old  Spanish 
record  bearing  date  1 800  :  — 

"  Although  those  lands  are  very  rich  and  productive,  being  fertilized  by 
the  San  Antonio  and  San  Pedro  Rivers,  the  waters  of  these  two  springs  are 
not  sufficient  for  the  garrison,  town,  and  missions,  being  unable  to  extend 
their  settlements  on  account  of  the  hostility  of  the  Apache  Indians.  Their 
villages  are  situated  at  a  distance  of  twenty  leagues  from  said  garrison ;  and 
from  these  places  they  come  out  to  commit  their  depredations,  not  only 
in  the  garrison  of  San  Antonio  de  Bexar,  but  as  far  as  the  province  of 
Coahuila,  as  they  have  excellent  horses,  fire-arms,  and  arrows,  which  they 
manage  with  the  greatest  dexterity.  The  chastisement  which  they  received 
in  1732  by  our  companies  was  not  sufficient  to  give  them  experience.  They 
beg  for  peace  whenever  they  find  themselves  in  danger;  but,  as  soon  as  they 
consider  themselves  in  safety,  they  are  the  first  to  break  all  treaties,  and 
would  commit  murders  and  all  kinds  of  barbarities,  caring  less  for  their 
wives  and  children,  whom  they  very  often  sacrifice  for  the  acquisition  of  a 
few  horses." 


A   PROCLAMATION.  297 

The  following  literal  translations  of  proclamations  made  by 
the  Governor  of  Texas  in  the  year  1809,  show  how  the  Span- 
iards talked  to  the  Indians,  of  whom  they  were  afraid,  and  who 
readily  accepted  the  Spaniards'  presents  of  tobacco  and  fire- 
water, but  would  not  accept  their  plan  of  salvation. 


PROCLAMATION    OF   THE    GOVERNOR    OF    TEXAS    TO 
VARIOUS    INDIAN    TRIBES. 

The  Second  Big  Captain  of  San  Antonio,  to  the  captains  and  warriors  of 
the  Tahuayas,  Wichita,  and  A quichi  Nations,  Greeting: 

Brothers  !  Your  envoys  and  their  companions  have  arrived  here  in 
good  health,  and  my  heart  felt  glad  at  seeing  them. 

Brothers  !  Open  well  your  ears,  and  listen  to  the  words  of  your 
father,  who  treats  you  as  his  sons. 

Brothers  !  When  the  First  Big  Captain  of  this  province  heard  that 
your  envoys  and  their  companions  were  near,  he  sent  out  eleven  Span- 
ish warriors  to  give  them  to  eat,  and  accompany  them  to  town. 

Listen  well  to  my  words  !  They  will  tell  you  how  well  they  have  been 
received  :  it  is  our  way  to  show  our  friendship  to  you.  They  all  went  to* 
the  house  of  the  First  Big  Captain,  who  gave  them  tobacco ;  after- 
wards they  came  to  my  house,  and  I  gave  them  to  drink  because  they 
were  tired  ;  and  then  they  went  out  to  rest. 

Brothers  !  The  First  Big  Captain  loves  you  as  much  as  I  do,  and  told 
me  to  go  to  meet  your  envoys  and  their  companions,  to  listen  to  what 
they  had  to  say.  I  did  so  two  suns  after  their  arrival,  and  my  heart  felt 
good  when  I  listened  to  their  talk. 

Brothers  !  The  first  who  talked  to  me  was  "  Feather  in  the  Ear,"  the 
son  of  the  Wichita  captain  :  the  second  was  the  Tahuayas  Achaja  (the 
Deaf),  in  the  name  of  Quiritachequia.  The  first  wanted  to  know  if 
what  the  Comanche  Shojas  told  you  was  true  ;  and  the  second,  if  it  was 
true  that  the  Spaniards  and  the  French  were  at  war,  and  why  so. 

Brothers  !  You  will  show  by  your  envoys  and  their  companions  that  I 
have  opened  my  heart  to  them,  as  they  did  theirs  to  me ;  and  I  said  to 
them,  "The  reception  you  have  met  with,  the  demonstrations  of  mjr 
friendship,  and  the  presents  you  will  receive,  will  show  you  that  Shojas 
has  not  spoken  the  truth*  since  the  First  Big  Captain  and  myself  did  not 
say  any  such  thing,  because  you  are  our  good  and  faithful  sons." 

Listen  well !  As  to  answer  the  second  question  was  a  proof  of  our 
confidence,  I  wanted,  first,  to  know  if  you  were  faithful  Spaniards  in> 


298  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

your  hearts.  Therefore  I,  your  envoys,  and  their  companions,  went  to 
see  the  First  Big  Captain,  who  had  just  arrived,  and  whom  they  wanted 
to  know  and  talk  with.  And  before  him  they  swore  in  your  names  that 
you  would  always  obey  the  Spanish  captains,  and  listen  to  no  man  of 
any  other  nation  without  our  permission. 

Brothers  !  My  heart  felt  very  good  at  that,  and  I  said  to  them,  the 
king  of  Spain  and  the  Indians,  "  Our  Great  Father,  seeing  that  the 
Frenchmen  of  the  big  land  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea  were  not  good 
nor  true  friends  to  his  sons  the  Spaniards,  and  that  they  were  not  grateful 
for  his  favors,  and  that  they  wanted  to  do  harm  to  the  Spaniards,  went 
to  war  against  them.  He  killed  many  French  big  captains  and  warriors, 
and  finally  made  prisoner  their  emperor,  who  is  the  worst  of  all  of  them. 
It  is  so,  that  we  Spaniards  punish  those  who  are  not  good  friends,  and 
bear  in  our  hearts  those  who  are  true  friends." 

Brother !  Open  your  ears  !  You  see  now  how  the  Spaniards  trust 
you.  If  you  keep  your  word  to  be  faithful  and  obedient,  we  shall  be 
your  fathers  ;  we  shall  treat  you  as  our  sons ;  and,  if  you  do  what  we  tell 
you,  you  shall  want  nothing. 

The  First  Captain  and  myself,  as  a  proof  of  our  word  to  protect  you, 
send  to  you  our  marks,  which  will  be  a  sign  for  you  that  any  man  who 
shows  you  either  of  them  must  be  listened  to,  and  receive  of  you  assist- 
ance and  help.  You  must  keep  well  these  marks,  and  let  me  know  if 
you  happen  to  lose  them. 

Your  envoys  take  with  them  three  bundles  of  tobacco,  one  for  each 
nation.  They  all  received  fine  presents,  and  had  their  bellies  filled.  I 
think  they  go  away  satisfied,  as  I  shall  always  be,  if  you  remain  faithful 
and  obedient.  And  so  you  shall  be  happy. 

The  Second  Spanish  Big  Chief, 

MANUEL  DE  SALCEDO. 
SAN  ANTONIO,  April  19,  1809. 

PROCLAMATION    OF   THE   GOVERNOR   OF   TEXAS    TO   THE 
TAHUAYAS,   WICHITA,   AND   AQUICHI    INDIANS. 

I  represent  the  person  of  your  great  father,  the  king  of  Spain,  and 
your  land.  I  look  on  you  as  on  my  sons,  and  I  am  glad  that  you  trust 
me  as  you  say,  and  I  will  treat  you  as  sons. 

You  have  asked  me  to  send  with  you  some  warriors  to  protect  you. 
To  which  I  say,  that,  having  now  a  great  use  for  my  soldiery,  I  cannot 
send  them  with  you ;  but  next  spring,  if  you  want  them,  I  shall  send 
them  to  visit  your  land. 


THE    OLD  AND   THE  NEW.  299 

You  cannot  doubt  but  that  I  look  on  you  as  on  my  sons,  as,  like  a 
father,  I  will  give  you  what  you  want,  and  you  shall  soon  be  happy. 

I  will  give  you  powder,  clothes,  and  other  things  you  want  for  your- 
selves, your  sons,  and  your  wives. 

Grant  me  only  one  thing  that  I  ask  of  you  :  it  is,  that  you  close  your 
ears  to  any  man  who  is  not  a  Spaniard,  not  to  listen  to  any  men  but  our- 
selves. Remain  faithful  to  us,  and  you  shall  be  happy. 

Do  not  allow  the  Englishmen  of  the  other  side  to  pass  through  your 
land  to  come  among  us,  and  do  not  allow  our  men  to  go  among  the 
Englishmen. 

The  Spanish  Big  Chief, 

MANUEL  DE  SALCEDO. 
JAN.  i,  1810. 

Until  1836  the  population  of  San  Antonio  de  Bexar  contin- 
ued to  increase.  Then  came  the  war  between  the  Texans  and 
Mexicans,  and  the  victory  of  the  Texans.  From  that  day  to 
this"  there  has  been  a  slow  and  gradual  change,  the  enterprise 
and  civilization  of  the  Texans  taking  the  place  of  the  apathy, 
ignorance,  and  shiftlessness  of  the  Mexicans. 

The  old  and  the  new  are  brought  together  in  violent  contrast 
in  San  Antonio,  —  here,  the  Mexican  jacal,  with  its  thatched  roof 
and  adobe  walls ;  across  the  street,  the  palatial  residence  of  an 
American  or  German  merchant,  with  its  surroundings  of  flow- 
ers and  fountains.  Now  a  narrow  and  crooked  street  is  in- 
tersected by  a  broad  avenue  lined  with  trees,  where  we  see 
the  carriage  of  the  broadcloth-covered  American  passing  the 
ragged  Mexican's  donkey-cart  of  a  pattern  used  two  hundred 
years  ago.  Farther  on  we  see  a  cock-pit  on  the  same  block 
with  the  Methodist  church,  while  we  hear  the  creak  of  the 
huge  Mexican  carretas  mingling  with  the  rattle  of  the  railroad- 
cars. 

The  following  is  a  bond  fide  list  of  the  names  of  those  to 
whom  marriage-licenses  were  issued  during  one  week  while  we 
were  in  San  Antonio.  I  found  the  list  in  the  San  Antonio 
"Express." 

"  The  following  is  the  list  of  marriage-licenses  issued  the  past  week  by 
Sam  S.  Smith,  Esq.,  the  county  clerk :  Henry  Edwards  and  Jane  Smith ; 
Manuel  Cluke  and  Fomasa  Granados ;  Stefan  Von  Mecezhawrki  and  Bry- 


300  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

jida  Farka;  R.  C.  Cummings  and  Susan  V.  Emmer:  Federrico  Zepeda 
and  Valeriana  Zedio ;  Francisco  Batron  and  Monica  Bihl ;  Ramon  Toldra 
and  Isabel  Martinez;  Charles.  Ackerman  and  Anna  Rickermann ;  Otto 
Schroeder  and  Fannie  Seiler." 

The  San  Antonio  River  flows  through  the  city.  A  range  of 
hills,  with  a  gradual  elevation  of  two  hundred  feet,  almost  sur- 
round the  valley  in  which  San  Antonio  is  situated.  The  city 
is  in  latitude  29°3o'  north,  longitude  98°24'.  Its  altitude  above 
the  level  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  is  six  hundred  and  eighty-seven 
feet.  Average  temperature:  spring,  69.90°;  summer,  83.50°; 
autumn,  68*90°  ;  and  winter,  52.90°. 

San  Antonio  is  now  a  city  of  about  twenty-two  thousand 
inhabitants.  Of  this  number,  about  six  thousand  are  Mexican, 
and  six  thousand  German. 

Official  notices  and  advertisements  are  printed  in  three  lan- 
guages. On  a  bridge  over  the  San  Antonio  River  there  is  a 
signboard  on  which  appears  the  following  notice  :  — 

WALK   YOUR    HORSES   OVER   THIS    BRIDGE,    OR   YOU    WILL    BE    FINED. 

SCHNELLES   REITEN   UBER   DIESE   BRUCKE    1ST   VERBOTEN. 

ANDA    DESPACIO   CON    SU   CABELLO,    O*    TEME   LA    LEY. 

These  notices  are  not  by  any  means  literal  translations  of 
each  other.  Each  shows  something  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
nationality  to  which  it  is  addressed.  The  American  is  told  to 
walk  his  horses,  or  he  will  be  fined.  The  appeal  has  a  financial 
aspect. 

The  German  is  advised  that  fast  riding  ist  verboten  (is  for- 
bidden). It  is  only  necessary  to  notify  the  law-abiding  German 
that  it  is  forbidden. 

To  the  Mexican  the  command  is  more  in  the  nature  of  a 
threat :  Go  slow  with  your  horse,  o  feme  la  ley  (or  fear  the 
law). 

Commerce  Street,  which  crosses  this  bridge,  and  connects 
the  two  principal  plazas,  is  the  chief  thoroughfare  of  the  city, 
and  most  of  the  business-houses  are  on  it.  The  street  is  quite 
crooked,  and  very  narrow.  An  ox-team  cannot  turn  on  it 


COMMERCE   STREET.  301 

When  one  vehicle  passes  another,  there  is  hardly  room  for  the 
dog  to  escape.  The  sidewalks  are  three  feet  wide  ;  and,  when 
the  small  man  meets  the  large  man,  the  small  man  steps  out 
into  the  gutter  until  the  large  man  passes.  These  sidewalks 
are  indescribably  rough  and  uneven.1  They  are  composed  of 
pieces  of  rock  of  different  sizes,  placed  at  every  imaginable 
angle  over  which  a  pedestrian  can  stumble.  There  is  only  one 
uniform  thing  about  the  San  Antonio  sidewalk,  and  that  is 
its  uniform  hardness.  There  are,  however,  along  this  Via  Dolo- 
rosa,  quite  a  number  of  well-furnished  drug-stores,  in  which  the 
pleasure-seeking  pedestrian  can  be  carried  when  he  needs  splints 
and  arnica,  or  when  he  wants  an  ankle-joint  adjusted. 

The  aged  gentleman  before  alluded  to  accompanied  the 
doctor  and  me  on  our  first  stroll  through  the  city.  Our  route 
from  the  Alamo  Plaza  was  through  Commerce  Street.  The 
aged  gentleman  could  see  nothing  in  San  Antonio  but  what 
was  superior  to  every  thing  of  the  same  kind  to  be  seen  any- 
where else.  If  a  cloud  of  dust  came  along  and  filled  our  nos- 
trils, eyes,  and  lungs,  he  would  call  attention  to  the  beautiful 
gulf-breeze  that  mitigated  the  heat  of  summer.  If  we  had 
been  ankle-deep  in  mud,  he  would  have  reminded  us  that  the 
San  Antonio  soil  was  very  rich  alluvial,  and  six  feet  in  depth. 

"  This,"  said  he,  tapping  with  his  cane  one  of  the  bowlders 
on  the  pavement,  "  is  none  of  your  slippery  asphalt  or  Nichol- 
son, that  wears  out  in  a  year,  and  has  to  be  repaired  every 
month.  This,  sir,  is  rock,  solid  rock,  native  rock ;  and  these 
sidewalks  you  see  here  have  not  been  repaired  in  twenty  years. 
They  are  just  as  the  Mexicans  built  them." 

I  was  about  to  say,  that  they  looked  as  if  they  had  been  built 
by  an  earthquake,  when  I  was  startled  by  the  noise  made  by 
some  one  stumbling,  and  falling  on  the  pavement.  It  was 
myself.  As  soon  as  I  regained  my  feet,  the  aged  gentleman 
remarked  blandly,  "  You  are  not  accustomed  to  good,  solid 
sidewalks,  and  probably  you  "  — 

He  was  going  to  say  something  more ;  but  he  unexpectedly 
stumbled  over  an  obstruction  of  the  tertiary  formation,  and 
went  head  first  into  a  fruit-shop.  After  explaining  and  apolo- 

1  Since  this  chapter  was  written,  some  improvements  have  been  made  in  the  sidewalks. 


302 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


gizing  to  the  proprietor,  he  went  on  to  state,  that  the  street 
was  much  more  picturesque  than  the  straight  streets  of  modern 
cities,  where  the  houses  were  all  uniform  in  size  and  architec- 
ture. Then  he  stopped,  and,  looking  up,  was  about  to  point 
out  some  object  of  interest  on  the  roof  of  the  house,  when  a 


>;  ^^^W~*^^*&^r* 


"NOT    ACCUSTOMED    TO    GOOD,    SOLID    SIDEWALKS." 

negro  boy,  carrying  a  tray  full  of  dinner  on  his  head,  collided 
with  us.  The  doctor  got  some  soup  on  his  pants,  and  the  aged 
gentleman  was  not  forgotten  in  the  matter  of  vegetables.  The 
doctor  inquired,  "  Why  did  the  founders  of  the  city  not  build 
the  streets  straight  ? " 


THE  LEGEND. 


303 


"  It  is  a  little  out  of  line,"  said  the  aged  gentleman ;  "  but 
originally  it  was  straight.  There  is  an  old  legend  regarding  it 
which  is  very  touching.  When  the  Spanish  fathers  came  here 
first,  they  camped  just  where  Jack  Harris's  variety  theatre  is 
One  of  the  party,  full  of  holy  zeal,  started  out  to  begin 


now. 


the  work  of  evangelizing  the  wild  Indians,  who  were  camped 
about  where  the  Menger  Hotel  is.  The  good  father  went  as 
far  as  where  Commerce-street  bridge  is  now  located,  searching 


PLANTING    ARROWS    IN    A    MISSIONARY. 


for  an  Indian.  His  zeal  was  rewarded :  he  found  one.  The 
Indian  at  the  same  moment  discovered  the  padre.  Before  the 
holy  father  could  raise  his  voice  in  praise,  the  Indian  raised  a 
howl  that  could  have  been  heard  at  the  head  of  the  river.  The 
monk's  legs  were  short,  but  the  speed  with  which  he  returned 
to  camp  would  have  done  credit  to  an  antelope.  The  Indian 
attempted  to  overtake  him  ;  and,  in  his  zeal  to  place  himself 
under  Christian  influences,  he  planted  several  arrows  in  the 
person  of  the  missionary,  who,  taking  a  bee-line  for  camp,  sue- 


304  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

ceeded  in  making  his  escape.  The  fast  time  made  by  the 
monk  was  regarded  as  a  miracle.  Commerce  Street  was  laid 
out  exactly  as  the  padre  ran,  and  was  as  straight  as  a  shingle." 

"  But  how  did  it  come  to  be  so  crooked  ? "  asked  the  doc- 
tor. 

"That  shows  that  you  are  a  stranger,  and  that  you  have 
never  seen  San  Antonio  in  a  real  muddy  time.  The  old  Span- 
iards staked  out  the  lots  and  building-sites  on  each  side  of  the 
street :  but,  before  they  began  to  build,  a  heavy  rain  fell,  and 
the  soil  became  liquid  ;  consequently  the  street  flopped  about 
like  an  eel  in  a  mud-puddle.  After  the  mud  had  dried  up,  and 
they  came  to  examine  the  stakes,  they  found  the  street  had 
dried  up  crooked.  As  they  could  not  wait  for  another  rain  to 
make  it  pliable,  they  built  along  the  crooked  line,  and  thus 
made  it  permanent.  They  had  to  abide  by  the  stakes  they  had 
driven  into  the  ground :  hence  many  of  the  lots  have  fourteen 
corners. 

"  Have  you  been  to  see  our  old  missions,  built  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  ? "  said  the  aged  gentleman  ;  and  then  he  went 
on  to  tell  us  all  about  them.  We  do  not  remember  having  met 
a  native  in  San  Antonio  who  did  not  ask  us  if  we  had  been  to 
see  the  missions,  or  who  failed  to  describe  their  architectural 
beauties  with  a  minuteness  of  detail  that  was  crifel. 

But  to  return  to  the  San  Antonio  streets.  The  old  Span- 
iards have  moved  away.  I  don't  know  where  they  have  moved 
to — but  they  left  the  streets  behind  them.  They  are  regarded 
as  such  sacred  relics  that  some  of  them  have  never  been  re- 
paired since.  Some  of  these  streets  have  been  widened  so  that 
a  modern  alderman  and  a  load  of  hay  can  pass  each  other  with- 
out lightering.  In  order  to  widen  the  streets,  the  property  of 
private  individuals  has  to  be  encroached  on  ;  and,  so  soon  as 
that  is  suggested,  property  rises  as  if  there  were  a  volcano 
under  it.  On  the  same  principle  it  is  impossible  for  a  railroad- 
train  to  run  over  any  thing  but  a  pure  Durham  cow. 

If  a  foot  and  a  half  is  taken  from  a  lot,  that  much  land  be- 
comes worth  as  much  as,  if  not  more  than,  the  whole  is  assessed 
at.  Under  these  circumstances  the  conviction  gradually  dawns 
on  the  tax-payer,  that  either  he  has  been  systematically  swin- 


CARRYING    OFF  A  HOLE  IN  THE    GROUND.     305 

died  by  low  assessments  or  else  an  attempt  is  being  made  to 
enrich  the  property-owner  out  of  the  city  treasury. 

The  San  Antonio  city  council  is  taking  vigorous  measures 
to  make  itself  unpopular,  and  with  very  flattering  prospects  of 
success.  An  ordinance  is  being  introduced  to  compel  mer- 
chants to  keep  their  empty  dry-goods  boxes  off  the  pavements ; 
which  goes  to  show  that  the  days  of  feudal  despotism  are  not 
over  yet.  Not  even  an  inspired  pen  can  describe  the  condition 
of  the  San  Antonio  sidewalks.  If  a  stranger  really  wants  to 
understand  how  bad  those  of  Commerce  Street  are,  let  him 
undertake  to  walk  backwards  down  a  steep  pair  of  stairs  in 
the  dark,  with  a  cooking-stove  in  his  arms.  After  he  and  the 
cooking-stove  have  reached  the  bottom,  which  they  will  do 
without  much  exertion  on  their  part,  he  will  be  in  the  same 
frame  of  mind  and  body  that  the  stranger  is  in  when  he  under- 
takes to  saunter  along  a  San  Antonio  sidewalk,  except,  that, 
when  he  falls  down-stairs,  he  will  probably  strike  a  carpet ;  but, 
when  he  strikes  hard-pan  on  the  sidewalk,  he  rests  cosily  on  sharp- 
cornered  pieces  of  hard  sandstone  set  up  edgewise.  Otherwise 
the  illustration  is  perfect. 

There  is  on  Commerce  Street,  nearly  opposite  the  National 
Bank,  a  hole  in  the  pavement,  as  it  is  humorously  called,  —  a  hole 
in  which,  on  an  average,  five  persons  sprain  their  ankles  daily. 
Being  a  hole  in  the  ground,  it  is  not  an  obstruction  in  the  legal 
sense  of  the  word  :  consequently  it  cannot  be  removed.  The 
owner  of  the  property  has  been  notified  to  take  the  hole  inside 
the  store,  just  the  same  as  if  it  were  a  wooden  Indian  or  dry- 
goods  box ;  but  he  knows  his  rights,  and  leaves  it  out  all  night. 
A  special  ordinance  will  have  to  be  drawn  up  to  cover  that 
hole,  or  it  will  remain  open  all  summer.  But  to  return  to  the 
dry-goods  boxes  I  have  just  left.  The  merchants,  in  the  good- 
ness of  their  hearts,  put  the  dry-goods  boxes  on  the  sidewalks 
for  the  very  purpose  of  obstructing  them.  As  long  as  the  side- 
walks are  not  blocked  up,  people  will  imagine  they  are  intended 
for  pedestrianism  ;  and,  whenever  they  make  that  mistake,  they 
have  to  be  carried  endwise  into  drug-stores.  The  idea,  however, 
of  anybody  being  able  to  devise  an  obstruction  of  dry-goods 
boxes  that  would  be  as  complete  an  obstruction  as  the  side- 


306 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


walks  themselves,  is  laughable  ;  and  yet,  if  the  city  were  to  re- 
quire the  wealthy  property-owners  to  lay  down  good  pavements, 
they  would  hold  indignation  meetings,  and  suggest  mob  vio- 
lence. Some  few  persons  who  have  never  made  the  ascent  or 
descent  of  the  San  Antonio  streets  may  think  the  foregoing 
exaggeration.  Not  so.  Those  who  die  of  lack  of  pavement 
facilities  appear  in  the  mortuary  report  as  having  died  of  some 
Latin  name  nobody  understands.  The  matter  is  thus  hushed 
up  so  as  not  to  deter  capitalists  from  investing  in  town  property. 


THE  DUST.  — SPANISH  PROFANITY. 


307 


CHAPTER     XXIII. 


AN  ANTONIO  is  famous  for  its  dust,  — not 
only  the  dust  of  the  Alamo,  but  common  dust. 
In  fact,  there  is  a  quaint  old  legend  that  San 
Antonio  owes  its  existence  to  dust.  When  the 
Spanish  soldiers,  missionaries,  and  settlers  first 
settled  in  this  valley,  the  friars  passed  an  ordi- 
nance that  everybody  who  used  profane  lan- 
guage would  be  fined  fifty  cents  for  church 
purposes.  It  was  a  dry  season ;  and,  high 
winds  prevailing,  the  air  was  filled  with  dust. 
Before  two  months  were  over  the  dust  was 
so  annoying  that  the  Spaniard  and  Indian 
converts  had  cursed  together  a  large  cathe- 
dral and  four  mission-buildings,  the  ruins  of 
which,  like  grim  sentinels  of  a  bygone  age, 
still  stand  where  their  walls  once  rang  with 
vesper  hymns,  mixed  up  with  choice  Spanish  profanity  at  the 
accursed  dust.  One  afternoon,  when  the  dust  was  absolutely 
fearful,  old  Gen.  Ignacio  Barterra  "  cussed  "  a  forty-foot  steeple 
on  the  old  church  on  the  plaza,  while  his  staff  swore  a  stone 
wall  around  the  new  cemetery.  Those  were  the  ages  of  faith. 
Nowadays,  when  a  man  gets  his  eyes,  nose,  and  mouth  full  of 
dust,  instead  of  contributing  to  church  purposes  by  the  inevita- 
ble flow  of  language,  he  contributes  half  a  cent  to  the  revenues 
of  the  State,  and  listens  to  the  tolling  of  the  bell-punch  as  he 
passes  out  of  the  saloon  with  a  piece  of  lemon-peel  in  his  mouth. 
We  passed  a  young  man  who  was  sitting  on  a  dry-goods  box 
with  his  head  tied  up,  and  one  arm  in  a  sling. 

"  Did  a  loaded  wagon  run  over  you  ?  "  asked  a  policeman,  as 


308  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

he  stepped  out  of  the  saloon-door  in  front  of  which  the  young 
man  was  sitting. 

"  No  :  we  were  only  celebrating  my  birthday  last  night.  We 
had  a  glorious  time.  You  ought  to  have  been  there." 

The  policeman  merely  said,  that,  judging  by  the  looks  of  the 
celebrant,  the  whole  force  ought  to  have  been  there. 

For  its  length  and  opportunities  the  San  Antonio  River  is 
accused  of  being  the  crookedest  river  in  the  world.  From  the 
head  of  the  river  to  the  city  is  a  distance  of  only  three  miles  and 
a  half ;  and  yet,  to  reach  the  city,  the  river  has  to  travel  seven 
miles.  This  disposition  to  loaf  and  ramble  about  in  an  aimless 
way  was  noted  by  the  observant  Indians,  who  named  it,  in 
their  musical  tongue,  Chem-quem-ka-ko,  —  in  English,  Old-man- 
coming-home-from-the  lodge.  The  Spaniards  thought  this  the 
name  of  some  heathen  god.  Wishing  to  change  it,  and  being 
desirous  of  conciliating  St.  Anthony  of  Padua,  —  thus  killing 
two  early  birds  with  one  worm,  —  they  rebaptized  Old-man- 
coming-home-from-the-lodge,  and  called  it  San  Antonio.  From 
this  the  simple-minded  Indians  imagined  St.  Anthony  to  be 
a  most  jovial  saint.  How  much  influence  this  had  on  San  An- 
tonio and  its  inhabitants,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  But  when,  in 
these  modern  times,  you  smell  and  see  about  fifteen  saloons  on 
one  block  in  the  business  centre  of  the  city,  and  when  you  are 
told  that  several  of  the  aldermen  travel  a  mile  and  a  half  in 
getting  to  their  homes,  only  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  distant, 
you  cannot  shake  off  the  impression,  that  the  original  name, 
Chem-quem-ka-ko,  would  be  more  in  harmony  with  the  surround- 
ings, and  that  the  unities  would  be  better  preserved,  than  by 
perpetrating  a  huge  joke  on  a  distressingly  steady  saint  like 
Anthony. 

The  San  Antonio  River  has  selected  a  lovely  spot  on  the 
Brackenridge  place,  at  which  it  bursts  forth  unexpectedly  in  the 
shape  of  one  of  the  most  beautiful  springs  to  be  found  in  Texas. 
From  San  Antonio  this  spring  could  be  reached  conveniently 
in  half  an  hour  if  it  were  not  that  the  owner  has  erected  a 
stone  wall  around  the  place,  which  is  hardly  low  enough  for 
strangers  to  climb  over,  and  be  chased  out  by  the  irate  Irish- 
man kept  on  the  premises  for  that  purpose. 


THE  ABBE  DOMENECH.  309 

The  spring  is  circular  in  shape,  about  six  feet  in  diameter, 
and  not  less  than  fifteen  feet  deep.  The  water  that  bubbles  up 
is  so  wondrous  clear,  that  the  movements  of  even  the  smallest 
fish  can  be  discerned.  No  attempt  to  describe  the  beauty  of 
the  spring  can  succeed.  Real  poets,  with  long  hair  and  a  wild 
glare  about  their  expressive  nostrils,  have  tried  it ;  but  I  shall 
not  distress  the  reader  by  reproducing  any  of  their  efforts. 

The  San  Antonio  River,  even  as  late  as  twenty-five  years 
ago,  was  a  clear,  rapid  brook,  gliding  onward  to  the  sea  to  the 
melodious  cadence  of  the  mocking-bird's  song,  etc.  Now  it 
looks  as  if  it  had  just  made  its  escape  from  a  laundry.  The 
temperature  of  the  water  is  the  same,  winter  and  summer.  It  is 
not  as  good  for  drinking-purposes  as  it  used  to  be.  The  habit 
of  depositing  cats,  and  other  luxuries  that  the  citizens  have 
no  further  use  for,  in  the  stream,  coupled  with  the  inability 
of  the  slow  current  to  transport  them  outside  of  the  city  limits 
until  they  have  become  infirm  with  age,  has  done  much  to  make 
cistern-water  popular.  According  to  the  most  reliable  tradi- 
tion, the  principal  use  the  Spaniards  and  Mexicans  had  for  the 
river,  after  using  it  to  irrigate  the  land,  was  to  bathe  in  it, — a 
pious  ceremony,  that  has  fallen  into  neglect  as  far  as  their  de- 
scendants are  concerned.  It  was  the  custom  for  all  ages  and 
sexes  to  bathe  promiscuously  together.  In  fact,  when  the 
Americans  began  to  settle  in  the  Alamo  City,  and  put  up 
canvas-covered  bath-houses,  the  astonished  natives  could  not 
understand  what  they  were  for.  In  a  "Personal  Narrative," 
written  by  the  abbe  Moses  Domenech  (a  French  priest  who 
visited  Texas  in  1845),  when  describing  San  Antonio,  the  modest 
abbe  says,  — 

"  Close  to  the  house  was  a  stream  of  clear  water,  where  the  washing  busi- 
ness of  the  town  was  done,  and  in  which  the  women  bathed  publicly.  My 
window  was  in  view  of  all  their  gambolings.  I  was  therefore  obliged  to 
keep  it  closed  during  the  day." 

Moralizing  on  the  change  in  the  times  and — and  priests 
since  the  days  when  Father  Moses  Domenech  closed  his  window, 
I  am  forced  to  exclaim,  in  the  classic  'language  of  the  ancients, 
"  O  tempora !  O  mores  !  O  Moses  !  " 


310  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

At  the  present  time  both  banks  of  the  river  are,  for  miles, 
studded  with  bath-houses  floating  on  empty  whiskey-barrels. 
Almost  everybody,  except  Mexicans,  bathes ;  and,  during  the 
heated  term,  a  bare-headed  clerk  in  his  shirt-sleeves,  darting 
across  Commerce  Street  with  a  towel  and  a  piece  of  soap  under 
his  arm,  is  a  permanent  feature  of  the  landscape. 

The  river  was  formerly  utilized  for  irrigating  purposes,  and 
helped  the  seasons  out  in  their  efforts  to  make  a  crop.  By 
promising  the  Indians  a  happy  future  beyond  the  sunset-glow, 
and  creating  a  yearning  for  it  by  making  it  hot  for  them  on  this 
side  of  the  valley  of  the  shadow,  the  Spanish  monks  induced 
them  to  excavate  the  long  miles  of  irrigating  ditches  that  still 
exist,  and  that  may  be  found  in  all  parts  of  the  city  and  out  in 
the  suburbs,  producing  the  only  genuine  cases  of  typhoid-fever 
of  which  the  city  can  boast. 

There  is  another  stream,  the  San  Pedro.  It  runs  through 
the  northern  part  of  the  city,  as  nearly  parallel  to  the  San 
Antonio  River  as  the  windings  of  the  two  streams  will  permit. 

The  rivers  of  San  Antonio  are  given  to  sudden  rises  and 
falls,  and  on  two  occasions  their  waters  met  on  the  main  plaza. 
In  1813  a  tremendous  cloud  burst  just  above  the  city;  and  the 
volume  of  water  that  fell  was  so  great,  that  the  two  streams 
rose  until  their  waters  commingled.  The  second  occasion  on 
which  the  waters  of  the  two  streams  met  was  1872,  when  two 
milk-wagons,  being  driven  rapidly  across  the  plaza,  collided  with 
disastrous  force,  the  milk-cans  bursting,  and  the  milk  mingling 
in  one  common  flood  on  the  plaza.  One  of  those  vehicles  was 
from  the  San  Pedro  side  of  the  town,  and  the  other  was  from 
the  farm  of  a  German  who  lived  on  the  San  Antonio  River, 
below  town.  Thus,  more  than  half  a  century  after  the  great 
overflow,  the  waters  of  the  two  streams  commingled  a  second 
time. 

The  Mexican  element  is  a  large  feature  in  the  population  of 
Western  Texas. 

Outside  of  the  cities  and  towns,  the  Mexicans  serve  as  shep- 
herds, teamsters,  and  cattle-herders.  Very  few  cultivate  the 
soil.  The  majority  of  those  in  San  Antonio  live  by  hauling 
wood,  prairie-hay,  bones,  and  other  country-produce,  into  town. 


MEXICAN  POLITENESS.  3 1 1 

The  remainder  eke  out  a  miserable  existence  by  pawning  and 
redeeming  their  superfluous  wearing-apparel.  A  Mexican  may 
be  very  poor ;  he  may  be  in  more  indigent  circumstances  than 
Job's  turkey ;  he  may  be  steeped  in  such  abject  poverty,  that, 
compared  to  him,  a  church-mouse  will  seem  to  be  rolling  in 
affluence ;  and  he  may  be  so  destitute,  that  he  is  not  able  to 
keep  more  than  six  dogs, — but,  even  then,  he  can  draw  upon 
his  pawnbroker  for  the  value  of  a  ticket  that  will  admit  him  to 
the  arena  where  chicken-disputes  occur  on  Sunday.  The  Mexi- 
cans spend  freely  what  little  they  have :  they  seldom  accumu- 


MEETING    OF    THE    WATERS. 


late  much  worldly  goods;  and  they  cannot  keep  any  thing  — 
not  even  the  sabbath  day. 

The  Mexicans  are  remarkable  for  their  politeness,  and  suavity 
of  manners.  Before  reaching  San  Antonio  we  called  at  the 
rancho  of  Don  Ignacio  Gonzales  to  ask  for  directions  as  to 
the  way.  Don  Ignacio  welcomed  us  at  the  door,  told  the 
doctor,  who  pretended  to  speak  Spanish,  that  he  was  his  ser- 
vant, and  invited  us  into  the  house.  "  Estoy  enteramente  a  su 
disposicion  "  ("  I  am  entirely  at  your  disposal ").  We  had  a 
very  pleasant  talk,  and  many  very  complimentary  things  were 


312 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


said  on  both  sides.  Among  other  things,  Don  Ignacio  said, 
"  Esta  V  en  su  casa,  y  puede  mandar  "  ("  You  are  in  your  own 
house,  and  can  command  "). 

The  doctor  noticed  a  fine  pair  of  spurs,  and  expressed  his 
admiration  of  them.  "  Tomele  V  senor ;  es  suyo  "  ("  Take  it, 
sir ;  it  is  yours  "),  said  the  old  gentleman. 

The  doctor  thanked  him  in  the  most  extravagant  terms  that 


"TOMELE    V    SENOR;    ES    SUYO." 

a  mixture  of  Spanish  and  English  would  allow,  and  put  the 
spurs  in  his  pocket.  We  were  then  directed  as  to  the  route, 
after  many  assurances  from  Senor  Gonzales  that  he  and  his 
sons  and  daughters,  his  man-servants  and  his  maid-servants, 
were  our  most  devoted  servants  henceforth  and  forever.  We 
said  "  Adios,"  and  started  to  leave.  The  hospitable  and  gener- 
ous old  ranchero  bowed  us  to  the  door,  assuring  us,  that,  while 
he  continued  to  inhabit  this  terrestrial  ball,  he  would  daily  pray 


A  MEXICAN  JACAL.  313 

that  the  choicest  blessings  of  Heaven  might  follow  us ;  and 
then  the  old  fraud  intimated,  in  quite  a  business-like  tone,  that, 
as  the  doctor  was  his  dearest  friend,  two  dollars  was  all  that  he 
would  charge  for  the  spurs  that  he  had  given  him. 

In  my  intercourse  with  the  Mexicans,  I  learned  that  the 
courteous  and  high-sounding  phrases  are  but  polite  expressions, 
meaning  nothing ;  and  that  although  they  may  say  "  Tomele  V 
senor,  es  suyo,"  when  you  admire  any  of  their  possessions, 
you  had  better  not  take  them  at  their  word,  unless  you  have 
money  in  you  pocket  to  pay  for  the  article.  If  you  inquire  of 
a  Mexican  as  to  any  matter  regarding  which  he  is  ignorant,  or 
indisposed  to  talk,  the  invariable  answer,  accompanied  by  a  lazy 
shrug  of  the  shoulders,  is,  "  Quien  sabe  ? "  ("  Who  knows  ? ") 
Many  of  the  Mexicans  residing  in  Texas  can  speak  English  ; 
but  they  often  deny  that  they  can.  "  No  entiendo "  ("  I  do 
not  understand  ")  is  frequently  heard  by  the  stranger  who  tries 
to  induce  the  Aztec  to  speak  English. 

The  majority  of  Mexicans  live  in  miserable  huts  called 
"jacals."  These  dens  consist  of  one  room  about  twelve  feet 
square.  The  walls  are  made  of  upright  posts,  the  interstices 
being  filled  with  mud.  There  is  no  attempt  at  ornamentation. 
The  mud  is  just  plastered  on,  the  capacious  hand  of  the  Mexi- 
can serving  as  a  trowel.  The  roof  is  made  of  cane,  thatched 
with  tule,  a  kind  of  rush.  The  more  pretentious  edifices 
have  tin  roofs,  constructed  out  of  old  oyster-cans.  This  kind 
of  roof  is  water-tight  (when  it  does  not  rain),  and  makes  an 
excellent  breeding-place  for  scorpions  and  centipedes.  Another 
advantage  of  the  thatched  roof  is,  that  it  takes  fire  readily,  and 
thus,  by  obliging  the  owner  to  build  another  roof,  stimulates 
him  to  habits  of  industry.  There  is  a  doorless  opening  in  the 
side  of  the  jacal,  used  for  the  entrance  and  exit  of  the  inhabit- 
ants. There  is  another  opening  that  serves  in  lieu  of  a  win- 
dow, and  is  used  as  a  private  entrance  by  the  goats  and  dogs. 
The  floor  is  of  mud,  pounded  hard.  The  American  national 
pastime  of  taking  the  carpets  out  to  the  back-yard,  and  beating 
the  dust  out  of  them,  is  unknown  in  Western  Texas. 

There  being  only  one  room  in  a  jacal,  it  is  much  more  con- 
venient than  the  arrangement  of  Buckingham  Palace,  because 


314 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


in  the  jacal  you  are  not  compelled  to  leave  the  dining-room,  and 
go  away  off  by  yourself  to  another  room,  when  you  want  to  put 
on  a  clean  shirt.  The  grounds  around  the  jacal  are,  however, 
adorned  with  statuary,  particularly  in  summer,  whenever  the 
older  members  of  the  family  sit  around  in  the  shade,  clothed 
only  in  their  native  modesty  and  one  other  garment. 

The  census  of  Mexicans,  of  all  ages  and  sexes,  who  live, 
move,  and  consume  beans,  in  one  of  these  habitations,  has  never 
been  taken ;  but  the  number  of  male  Mexicans  old  enough  to 
vote,  that  can  be  enticed  out  of  one  of  them  with  a  bottle  of 


A    MEXICAN    JACAL. 


whiskey  on  election-day,  is  large  enough  to  justify  putting  the 
average  at  about  thirty. 

Jacals  of  this  description  are  about  the  only  dwellings,  out- 
side of  the  towns,  that  can  be  found  from  the  mouth  of  the  Rio 
Grande  to  El  Paso,  —  fourteen  hundred  miles  up  the  river. 

Leaven  bread  of  any  kind  is  not  used  by  the  Mexicans. 
They  have  a  substitute  for  the  indigestible  boarding-house  bis- 
cuit of  the  American  :  they  call  it  tortilla. 

The  tortilla  is  made  of  corn.  The  corn  is  first  soaked  in 
lye  until  it  is  soft  ;  then  it  is  ground  into  a  paste  on  a  rough, 
flat  rock,  called  a  metate,  a  smaller  rock  being  used  as  a 


THE   TORTILLA.  — THE    TAMALE.  315 

pestle.  The  soaking  of  the  corn,  the  grinding  of  it,  and  its 
final  baking  on  a  piece  of  sheet-iron,  are  done  by  the  women. 
When  the  real  hard  work  of  chewing  and  swallowing  it  has  to 
be  accomplished,  the  men  bear  most  of  the  heat  and  burden  of 
the  day. 

When  warm,  the  tortilla  can  be  eaten  without  letting  out  the 
contract  to  a  deputy.  The  soles  of  an  old  pair  of  brogans 
would  be  tender  and  juicy  compared  with  a  cold  tortilla. 

When  the  Mexican  cannot  get  fresh  beef,  he  lives  on  dried 
beef  (but  he  usually  has  the  fresh  article  when  there  is  any  in 
the  country).  He  first  hunts  up  a  "beef."  Any  beef  will  do, 
provided  he  does  not  own  it  himself.  The  animal  is  executed  ; 
and  the  flesh,  having  been  cut  up  into  strips  and  slabs,  is  salted, 
and  hung  out  on  the  fence,  like  a  week's  washing.  When  the 
beef  has  been  thoroughly  cured,  it  becomes  so  tough  that  it  is 
a  fit  accompaniment  to  the  tortilla.  Thanks  to  their  Indian 
descent,  and  their  abstinence  in  the  matter  of  hot  soup  and  ice- 
water,  the  Mexicans  have  the  best  teeth  in  the  world.  Were 
it  not  for  the  excellence  of  their  teeth,  the  Mexicans  would 
starve  to  death  on  such  food  as  they  have. 

The  Mexican  laughs  and  grows  fat  over  another  dish,  which 
may  be  called  Mexican  hash.  Like  our  American  hash,  the 
ingredients  cannot  even  be  accurately  guessed  at.  It  requires 
a  great  deal  of  confidence  to  really  enjoy  any  kind  of  hash, 
but  Mexican  hash  is  particularly  exacting  as  to  the  amount  of 
faith  necessary  to  a  comfortable  enjoyment  of  it. 

The  tamale  is  even  more  mysterious  than  the  hash,  for  it  is 
concealed  in  a  greased  corn-shuck.  The  materials  that  can  be 
detected  in  it  with  the  naked  palate  are  pepper,  corn-meal,  some 
kind  of  meat,  and  —  pepper.  This  mixture  is  seasoned  with 
pepper.  It  is  believed  that  there  is  a  connecting-link  between 
the  plump,  fat  Felon  dogs  that  swarm  about  every  jacal,  and 
the  tamales.  Mexicans  of  all  ages,  sexes,  and  previous  condi- 
tions are  equally  fond  of  both.  There  is  a  wild  legend  among 
the  older  inhabitants  of  San  Antonio,  that  tells  how  one  of  their 
number,  who  was  an  enthusiast  on  the  subject  of  tamales,  — 
claiming  for  that  article  of  food  medical  properties, — one  day 
discovered  in  one  of  those  herbs  a  tuft  pf  hair  that  had  evi- 


316 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


dently  adorned  the  head  of  the  Pelon  or  Barbary  dog.  This 
discovery  established  the  fact  that  tamales  really  do  have  medi- 
cinal qualities,  —  somewhat  in  the  nature  of  an  emetic ;  and 
it  effected  a  perfect  cure  :  the  enthusiast's  craving  for  tamales 
was  gone  forever. 

The  mode  of  preparing  the  tamale  is  peculiar.  A  handful  of 
hash  is  wrapped  up  in  a  corn-shuck,  and  boiled  in  lard  or  grease. 
The  corn-shuck  is  not  eaten  with  the  tamale ;  although  nothing 
can  be  brought  up  against  the  shuck,  except  that  it  is  found  in 
bad  company,  associating  with  the  other  ingredients. 

The  bean  called  frijoles  is  the  national  berry  of  the  Mexi- 
cans. Do  not  pronounce  it  "freejowls,"  however,  but  "free- 
holies,"  if  you  want  a  Mexican  to  understand  you.  There  is 
one  thing  about  the  bean  that  the  Mexican  dislikes  very  much. 
If  he  requires  fresh  meat,  he  can  go  out  on  the  prairie,  and 
shoot  a  yearling ;  if  he  needs  a  pony,  he  can  go  out  and  rope 
one  :  but,  when  he  wants  beans,  he  has  to  chastise  the  earth 
with  a  hoe,  —  an  ignoble  undertaking,  that  no  true  hidalgo 
should  ever  be  caught  at. 


CUL  TIVA  TING  RE  VOL  UTIONS. 


317 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 


TEALING,  and  cultivating  revo- 
lutions, are  the  pastimes  of  the 
Mexican  aristocracy,  and  have  al- 
ways been  so  ;  while  tilling  the 
soil  is  reserved  for  the  common 
herd.  The  Mexican  has  enough 
Spanish  blood  left  in  him  to  be  constitutionally  opposed  to  any 
more  severe  labor  than  cavorting  over  the"  prairie  like  the  Arab. 
Beans  are  to  the  Mexican  soldiers  what  the  bagpipes  are  to 
th,e  Scotch  Highlanders:  they  fill  them  with  Man.  As  soon 
as  one  party  of  revolutionists  in  Mexico  cuts  off  the  beans  of 
the  other  party,  an  unconditional  surrender  follows. 

The  bean  is  quite  small  and  black,  but  it  has  a  fine  flavor. 
It  is  often  spoken  of  as  being  "unhealthy  for  foreigners  ;"  and 
it  is  generally  understood  that  there  was  a  time  when  it  was 
not  safe  for  Americans  to  tamper  with  it,  a  single  bean  having 
been  known  to  cause  sudden  death.  All  rumors  of  this  kind 
are  based  on  something  tangible,  even  if  that  something  should 
be  a  lie ;  and  so  it  is  with  the  assertion  that  the  Mexicans' 
black  bean  is  unhealthy. 

It  frequently  happened,  during  the  Texas  revolution,  that 
Americans  were  taken  prisoners  by  the  Mexicans.  In  many 
instances  these  prisoners  were  massacred  on  the  spot,  as  at  the 
Alamo  and  Goliad  ;  but  afterwards  a  great  many  were  taken  to 
Mexico.  Whenever  the  Mexicans  in  their  own  country  heard 
of  the  Texans  defeating  the  Mexicans  in  Texas,  they  would 
take  out  some  Texan  prisoners,  and  shoot  them,  to  re-establish 


3  1 8  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG, 

the  national  courage.  They  preferred  shooting  Texans  who  had 
no  arms, — probably  because  it  was  safer,  and  saved  travelling- 
expenses.  In  selecting  the  prisoners  to  be  shot,  they  used 
beans.  For  every  ten  prisoners  they  put  nine  white  beans  and 
one  black  bean  in  a  hat,  and  then  passed  around  the  hat,  the 
result  of  which  was  death  to  the  man  who  selected  the  black 
bean. 

Americans  can  now  eat  frijoles  without  the  slightest  risk. 
The  idea  that  they  are  dangerous  is  founded  upon  the  facts 
above  stated. 

The  average  Mexican  has  scruples  about  engaging  in  enter- 
prises that  require  any  thing  savoring  of  physical  exercise.  He 
is  very  effeminate,  except  when  somebody  is  after  him  on  horse- 
back, or  when  he  is  eating  his  meals,  in  both  of  which  emer- 
gencies he  develops  surprising  vigor ;  but  otherwise  he  prefers 
his  do  Ice  far  niente,  with  which  every  family  is  amply  provided. 
He  has  none  of  the  aggressiveness  of  the  old  Spaniard.  They 
keep  on  calling  him  a  Spaniard  and  an  hidalgo ;  which  reminds 
me  of  the  Cuban  coin  that  is  now  worth  only  fifteen  cents,  but 
is  still  called  a  dollar. 

The  Texas  Mexicans  are  very  lazy.  They  are,  however, 
cheerful  and  contented,  bearing  patiently  the  proud  man's 
contumely,  while  they  humbly  climb  over  his  back-fence,  and 
steal  his  chickens  at  night. 

"  Are  the  Mexicans  a  good-natured  people  ?  "  asked  an 
American  of  one  who  had  lived  among  them. 

"Very  good  natured,"  was  the  reply  :  "they  will  take  almost 
any  kind  of  treatment  without  grumbling.  They  will  even 
take  the  small-pox  from  each  other  without  making  any  fuss 
about  it." 

Some  have  been  so  uncharitable  as  to  contend  that  the  Mexi- 
cans on  the  Rio  Grande  have  for  generations  been  so  accus- 
tomed to  taking  every  thing,  that  now  they  take  the  small-pox 
from  mere  force  of  habit. 

About  the  only  two  institutions  that  can  be  relied  on  in 
Mexico  are  revolutions  and  small-pox  :  otherwise  the  country  is 
healthy.  Owing  to  its  very  fine  climate,  Mexico  would  be  dis- 
tressingly over-populated,  were  it  not  for  these  two  modes  of 


SMALL-POX.  319 

keeping  down  the  population.  Either  is  liable  to  break  out  at 
any  time.  Vaccination  is  not  popular.  But  time  will  change  all 
this.  Revolutions  and  small-pox  will  both  be  suppressed  as 
Mexico  becomes  modernized.  The  citizens  who  are  liable  to 
small-pox  will  be  vaccinated  by  the  doctors,  and  those  who  are 
in  danger  of  breaking  out  in  a  revolutionary  sense  will  be  vac- 
cinated with  guns  by  the  soldiers.  President  Diaz  has  several 
times,  by  this  means,  prevented  the  epidemic  from  spreading. 
At  present,  however,  the  small-pox  has  it  all  its  own  way.  The 
Mexicans  regard  it  as  any  other  disease,  and  cannot  understand 
the  alarm  and  terror  of  the  Americans,  who  are  accustomed  to 
die  of  other  diseases. 

When  an  American  takes  the  small-pox,  he  is  arrested,  and 
locked  up  in  a  pest-house.  If  he  were  to  be  seen  on  .  the 
streets,  his  best  friends  would  refuse  to  drink  with  him,  and  the 
Board  of  Health  would  sit  on  him.  Those  who  do  not  leave 
the  neighborhood  where  a  case  of  small-pox  is  located,  spend 
most  of  their  time  in  getting  vaccinated,  and  in  examining  each 
other's  arms  to  see  if  it  has  "taken." 

The  following  is  a  San  Antonio  incident,  and  is  positively 
true :  — 

The  accused  was  a  Mexican  who  had  been  drunk 
orderly.  His  very  appearance  was  suggestive  of  small-pox. 
As  soon  as  the  recorder  took  his  seat,  he  riveted  his  eyes  on 
the  prisoner,  and  asked,  — 

"  What  is  the  name  of  that  villanous-looking  outcast  on  the 
mourners'  bench  ? " 

"His  name,"  said  the  county  attorney,  "is  Don  Jose  Maria 
de  Valgeme  Dios  tres  Palacios." 

"I  dismiss  the  case  against  him." 

"But,  your  honor,  the  man  is  guilty." 

"  Maybe  ;  but  there  are  mitigating  circumstances." 

"  What  are  those  circumstances  ? " 

Recorder  (aside).  —  "I've  not  yet  been  vaccinated." 

The  National  Board  of  Health  sent  a  man  to  San  Antonio  to 
find  out  how  small-pox  patients  were  treated.  He  found  that 
the  patients  were  treated  with  such  profound  respect  by  the 
white  population,  that,  when  one  of  them  walked  down  Com- 


320 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


merce  Street,  he  had  the  middle  of  the  street  and  both  sidewalks 
all  to  himself.     He  was  never  jostled  or  run  over  by  the  mob. 

In  Mexico  it  is  entirely  different :  they  regard  a  person  who 
has  not  had  the  small-pox  as  a  suspicious  character.  In  certain 
parts  of  Mexico  everybody  is  more  or  less  marked  with  the 
small-pox.  The  people  look  with  awe  and  pity  on  a  man  who 
is  so  unfortunate  as  to  lack  the  beautifying  evidences  of  that 
popular  disease.  The  Mexican  treats  the  small-pox  with  indif- 
ference—  when  he  treats  it  at  all.  If  a  member  of  the  family 


TREATED    WITH    RESPECT. 


is  down  with  the  disease,  the  entire  .family  would  feel  aggrieved 
if  the  neighbors  did  not  call  in  at  least  once  or  twice  a  day  to 
see  how  the  small-pox  was  coming  on.  When  there  is  small- 
pox in  town,  and  the  townspeople  do  not  notify  those  out  in 
the  country,  so  that  they  can  come  in  and  enjoy  themselves, 
too,  it  engenders  bad  feelings.  In  fact,  the  Mexicans  never 
seem  to  be  quite  sociable  until  there  are  three  or  four  deaths  a 
day  in  the  neighborhood.  They  always  call  around  to  look  at 
the  remains,  and  compare  the  number  of  spots  with  the  number 
on  some  other  remains.  If  the  corpse  is  very  much  disfigured, 
the  grief  of  the  relatives  is  mitigated. 


WHISTLING   TO   THEIR   CORPSE.  321 

Several  attempts  have  been  made  to  popularize  vaccination, 
but  in  vain.  It  is  dangerous  for  a  doctor  to  make  the  sugges- 
tion. The  Mexicans  feel  as  if  it  would  deprive  them  of  some 
vested  right  bequeathed  by  their  forefathers.  The  fact  that 
about  two-thirds  of  those  who  take  the  small-pox  die,  is  no 
drawback.  To  the  Mexican  the  great  charm  about  the  disease 
is  the  almost  inevitable  funeral,  which  is  as  cheerful  as  an  Irish 
wake. 

A  gentleman  from  San  Antonio  happened  to  be  in  Laredo 
during  a  small-pox  epidemic.  Out  of  curiosity  he  attended  a 
funeral. 

A  Mexican  had  died  in  the  neighboring  house ;  and  the  ser- 
vice of  the  local  band,  consisting  of  a  fiddle,  a  drum,  a  harp, 
and  one  or  two  other  musical  instruments,  had  been  engaged 
to  render  the  ceremonies  unusually  impressive.  It  was  the 
custom  to  play  two  tunes  —  a  lively  waltz  and  some  other  senti- 
mental piece  —  at  the  house,  and  two  more  pieces  at  the  grave. 
The  corpse  was  laid  out  in  the  room ;  and  the  musicians  began 
to  play  "  The  Blue  Danube,"  or  a  dirge  that  sounded  very  much 
like  it ;  and  all  were  enjoying  themselves  hugely,  and  saying 
that  it  was  the  nicest  funeral  of  the  season,  when  the  chief  of 
the  musicians  made  a  signal,  and  they  all  stopped  playing  in 
the  middle  of  the  tune.  Everybody  was  dumfounded,  and 
asked  what  had  happened  to  thus  mar  the  solemnity  of  the 
occasion.  The  chief  musician  promptly  explained.  He  had 
been  hired  to  play  for  one  corpse ;  and,  behold !  there  were  two. 
It  seemed  that  a  child  in  the  neighborhood  had  died ;  and  the 
parents  being  too  poor  to  hire  the  band,  and  knowing  that 
there  was  going  to  be  music  at  the  other  funeral  anyhow,  had 
brought  their  dead  infant,  and  put  it  alongside  of  the  corpse  in 
whose  honor  the  musical  entertainment  was  gotten  up,  and 
without  consulting  the  chief  musician.  He  told  the  grief- 
stricken  survivors  that  he  would  not  let  them  ring  in  a  whole 
morgue  on  him  in  that  way  :  they  might  whistle  to  their  corpse 
if  they  wanted  to,  for  not  another  jig  would  he  play.  The  pall- 
bearers reasoned  with  him.  They  pointed  out  the  smallness  of 
the  corpse,  and  how  it  cost  no  more  exertion  to  fiddle  for  one 
corpse  than  it  did  for  a  whole  graveyard.  Would  he  not,  at 


322  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

least,  make  special  rates  ?  But  he  refused  :  he  wanted  to  be 
paid  for  two  whole  corpses.  Things  began  to  look  gloomy, 
when  the  American  proposed  to  pay,  and  did  pay,  the  extra 
dollar  and  a  quarter  demanded.  The  bereaved  parents  wept 
tears  of  joy.  The  fiddler  tuned  up,  and  played  a  merry  rounde- 
lay, while  the  professor  at  the  drum  banged  away  with  such 
vigor  as  to  start  every  echo  and  donkey  in  the  neighborhood. 

Talking  about  donkeys,  there  is  a  very  pretentious  young 
man  in  San  Antonio,  named  Humboldt  Wilson,  who  recently 
took  rooms  and  board  with  a  family  named  Smithers.  Young 
Smithers,  after  the  manner  of  San  Antonio  boys,  rides  about 
on  .a  little  Mexican  donkey.  A  short  time  ago  Wilson  was 
standing  at  the  door  of  the  post-office,  talking  to  some  of  his 
acquaintances,  when  young  Smithers  rode  past  on  his  donkey. 

"  How  long  have  the  Smithers  been  keeping  an  ass  ? "  said 
some  one. 

"  They've  had  one  about  the  place  ever  since  I  have  been 
there,"  replied  young  Wilson.  [Rude  laughter  by  the  audi- 
ence.] 

It  is  very  difficult  to  distinguish  one  Mexican  from  another. 
They  all  look  as  if  they  had  been  cast  in  the  same  mould,  — 
a  mould  very  much  out  of  repair. 

There  was  a  case  of  horse-stealing  tried  in  the  district  court 
in  San  Antonio,  in  early  days,  that  was  very  peculiar.  There 
was  not  very  much  style  about  trying  cases  then,  and  particu- 
larly horse-stealing  cases.  Where  a  Mexican  was  accused  of 
stealing  a  horse,  pretty  much  all  that  was  necessary  was  to 
say,  "  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  there's  your  Mexican  !  "  and  they 
would  cry  out,  "  Guilty  of  murder  in  the  first  degree,"  without 
leaving  their  seats.  Maybe  it  was  not  quite  so  ceremonious, 
but  there  was  not  much  time  wasted  in  consigning  him  to  the 
penitentiary. 

One  day  a  Mexican  named  Jose  Maria  Somethingorother 
was  brought  into  court  to  be  tried  for  undue  recklessness  in 
the  transfer  of  live-stock.  The  Court  had  appointed  a  leading 
lawyer  to  defend  the  Mexican,  he  being  without  funds  to  em- 
ploy one  ;  but  the  lawyer  had  been  prevented  by  more  impor- 
tant business  from  consulting  with  his  Mexican  client.  In 


ON  THE  JURY  THAT  TRIED  HIS   OWN  CASE.     323 

fact,  he  never  saw  his  client  until  the  deputy-sheriff  brought 
him  into  court,  and  dumped  him  down  into  a  chair  alongside 
of  his  attorney.  Now,  the  deputy-sheriff  had  been  lately  ap- 
pointed, and  did  not  know  one  Mexican  from  another ;  and  as 
the  venue  had  run  short,  and  the  jury-box  had  to  be  filled,  he 
picked  up  all  the  loafers  in  the  court-room,  and  actually  took 
the  prisoner  himself,  and  put  him  in  the  jury-box  to  try  his 
own  case.  The  prisoner  was  not  familiar  with  the  ways  of  the 
Court,  so  he  did  not  say  any  thing ;  and,  as  another  Mexican 
strolled  in  and  took  the  vacant  seat  of  the  prisoner,  his  counsel 
was  none  the  wiser,  particularly  as  he  himself  had  been  out  in 
the  mean  time,  and  had  taken  several  drinks.  The  jury  was 
impanelled  and  sworn,  among  them,  of  course,  the  prisoner, 
who  lifted  up  his  hand  with  the  rest. 

The  prisoner's  attorney  now  turned  to  his  client,  and,  not 
knowing  Spanish,  asked  him  in  English  if  he  really  stole  the 
horse,  as  charged  in  the  indictment.  The  Mexican  understood 
not  a  word  ;  and,  as  sometimes  happens  when  Mexicans  are 
asked  questions  they  do  not  understand,  the  answer  was,  "  Si, 
Senor ! "  ("  Yes,  sir ! "),  whereupon  the  lawyer  got  up  and  told  the 
Court  that  his  unfortunate  client  pleaded  guilty,  but  that  he, 
the  lawyer,  would  like  to  address  a  few  words  to  the  jury. 
The  district-attorney  not  objecting,  the  lawyer  made  the 
greatest  effort  of  his  life.  He  proved  that  his  client  was 
descended  from  a  noble  Castilian  family  that  had  shed  their 
blood  like  water  in  holding  this  country  against  the  Indians, 
how  bad  company  had  ruined  him,  how  his  family  was  in  dis- 
tress, and  much  more  of  the  same  kind  of  eloquence,  until  all 
the  jury  were  more  or  less  affected  —  except  the  prisoner  in 
the  jury-box,  who  being  a  Mexican,  and  not  understanding  Eng- 
lish, was  not  much  moved.  It  was  not  his*  funeral.  The  jury 
brought  in  a  verdict  of  guilty,  and  assessed  the  penalty  at  five 
years'  imprisonment.  The  jurymen,  among  them  the  real  cul- 
prit, were  dismissed,  while  the  sheriff  put  handcuffs  on  the 
innocent  man  in  the  chair,  and  led  him  off  to  jail.  No  doubt 
he  had  been  guilty  of  some  rascality,  for  he  went  along  without 
murmuring.  The  upshot  of  it  was,  that  the  guilty  juryman 
got  wind  of  it,  and  made  his  escape.  In  the  mean  time  the 


324  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

friends  of  the  missing  Mexican  hunted  the  whole  town  over 
for  him,  but  in  vain.  At  last  he  was  discovered  in  jail,  with 
hobbles  on.  As  he  owned  several  carts  and  oxen,  and  was  a 
man  of  wealth  and  influence  among  the  Mexicans,  a  lawyer 
got  him  out  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  On  the  examination 
all  these  facts  came  out,  and  the  lawyer  who  had  defended  the 
Mexican  had  a  great  deal  of  fun  poked  at  him.  Judge  Thomas 
J.  Devine,  before  whom  the  Mexican  was  brought  on  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  and  Judge  John  H.  Duncan,  city  attorney  of 
Houston,  will  cheerfully  substantiate  the  facts  contained  in  the 
foregoing. 

A  peculiar  feature  of  San  Antonio  is  the  ditches  which  cross 
the  city  in  different  directions.  They  are  about  three  feet  deep, 
three  feet  wide,  and  filled  with  running  water  of  an  uncertain 
color.  The  aged  gentleman  walked  out  with  me  to  show  me 
the  Alazan  ditch. 

"  Did  you,"  said  I,  quoting  from  Mrs.  Spofford's  sketch  of 
San  Antonio,  in  "  Harper's  Magazine  "  —  "  did  you  ever  see 
the  water  in  these  ditches  glisten  and  sparkle  like  diamonds  in 
the  merry  sunlight  ?  " 

Said  he,  '"Which  ?  " 

I  quoted  the  statistics  from  "  Harper's  "  to  him  again. 

"  No,  not  since  I  quit  drinking  ;  but  I  remember  that  was 
the  way  it  used  to  look  —  particularly  on  Fourth  of  July  and 
Christmas." 

"  Are  these  ditches  very  useful  now  ?  There  must  be  some 
people  who  are  benefited,  or  the  ditches  would  be  filled  up." 

"  Yes  —  the  doctors.  The  ditches  are  mighty  useful  in  fur- 
nishing the  community  with  fever.  They  are  not  only  useful 
to  people  living  here,  but  to  strangers,  who  don't  know  where 
they  are  after  dark  lintil  they  fall  into  one  of  them. 

"  You  see,"  continued  the  aged  gentleman,  "when  the  Span- 
iards came  here,  the  climate  was  so  dry  that  they  didn't  raise 
any  thing  —  except  a  disturbance  with  the  Indians.  The  first 
thing  they  did  to  encourage  the  weather  was  to  get  up  proces- 
sions, and  hang  pictures  of  saints  up  in  the  trees  ;  but  that 
didn't  do  anybody  any  good,  except,  probably,  the  priests. 
When  they  found  that  processions  were  of  no  avail  in  chan- 


THE  IRRIGA  TING-DITCHES 


325 


ging  the  climate,  they  hired  a  priest  to  have  a  vision,  and  he  had 
one  that  very  night.  St.  Anthony  appeared  to  him,  and  beck- 
oned him  to  follow.  The  priest  followed  ;  and,  in  an  incredibly 
short  space  of  time,  the  saint  and  the  priest  stood  at  the  head 
of  the  river. 

" '  Now,'  said  St.  Anthony,  speaking  for  the  first  time  since 
he  appeared  to  the  priest,  '  do  you  see  the  head  of  the  river  ? ' 

"  The  priest  nodded  assent. 

" '  Well,  do  you  know  what  I  think  ought  to  be  done  to  it  ? ' 

"  The  priest  shook  his  head,  and  looked  his  most  ignorant 
look. 

"  '  It  is  worthless  as  it  is,'  said  St.  Anthony.  '  It  does  nobody 
any  good ;  it  is  an  unprofitable  servant ;  and  I  think  it  ought 
to  be  dammed.' 

"  The  priest  gazed  with  awe  at  his  companion.     Could  it  be 
Satan,  disguised  as  St.  An- 
thony,   who    had    brought 
him  up  here  to  make  sport 
of  him  ! 

"  '  I  mean,'  said  St.  An- 
thony, '  that  it  ought  to  be 
dammed,  so  as  to  raise  the 
water  high  enough  to  irri- 
gate the  valley.  Let  me 
speak  to  you  privately.' 

"  Then  the  saint  took 
the  priest  aside,  and  ex- 
plained how  easy  it  would 
be  for  the  priest  to  get  in 
with  some  capitalist,  and 
buy  up  the  land  lying  along  the  route  of  the  proposed  irri- 
gating-ditches  for  a  mere  song.  'Why,'  continued  the  saint 
in  an  earnest  tone,  '  you  can  also  buy  the  city  council  by  giving 
each  alderman  a  few  lots  ;  and  they  will  run  the  ditches  right 
through  your  real  estate,  and  it  will  go  up  five  hundred  per  cent. 
I  tell  you  there  is  something  in  it  if  judiciously  managed.' 

" '  How  much  interest  in  this  business  will  you  expect  ? ' 
inquired  the  priest,  who  now  felt  assured  that  Anthony  was 


ST.    ANTHONY    AND    THE    PRIEST. 


326  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

not  the  Devil,  but  merely  a  poor  saint,  without  capital,  desirous 
of  making  an  honest  living. 

"  St.  Anthony  smiled,  as  he  said,  '  You  forget  I  am  not  of 
this  world,  and  am  not  moved  or  influenced  by  its  vain  and 
mercenary  desires.  But  I'll  tell  you  what  I  want  you  to  do  for 
me.  You  see,  where  I  live  they  are  disposed  to  look  down 
on  me.  All  the  other  saints  who  have  any  rank  and  position 
have  some  town  or  river  named  after  them.  There  is  St.  Louis. 
You  ought  to  hear  him  brag  about  the  town  he  claims  to  be 
the  patron  of.  And  then  St.  Peter,  he  claims  St.  Petersburg. 
And  St.  Lawrence,  he  is  always  talking  about  his  river.  They 
sort  of  hold  up  their  heads,  and  fold  their  wings,  as  if  they 
owned  forty  acres  and  a  mule  ;  and  I'm  getting  tired  of  it. 
Now,  I  want  you  to  name  this  town  and  river  after  me.  Some 
day  your  town  will  be  the  largest  city  in  Texas,  and  the  day  will 
come  when  I  won't  feel  like  taking  my  hat  off  to  any  of  them.' 

"  The  priest  promised  to  see  to  it,  and  the  saint  disappeared 
as  suddenly  as  he  had  appeared." 

I  ventured  to  suggest  to  the  aged  gentleman,  that  his  version 
of  the  origin  of  the  name  did  not  agree  with  history. 

"  History  be  durned  !  "  said  he.  "  It's  not  history,  it's  truth, 
I've  been  telling  you." 

Stranger  honors  than  having  San  Antonio  named  for  him 
were  actually  heaped  on  St.  Anthony  a  few  years  later.  The 
Lisbon  "  Rivista  "  not  long  ago  published  an  old  record  found 
in  the  archives  at  Rio  Janeiro.  It  seems  that  King  John  VI. 
of  Portugal,  being  regent  in  the  year  1814,  and  being  either 
grateful  for  some  saintly  favor  or  anxious  to  secure  the  in- 
fluence of  St.  Anthony,  issued  a  decree,  in  which,  after  stating 
what  a  noble  saint  St.  Anthony  was,  and  how  much  the  Portu- 
guese people  were  indebted  to  him,  he  continued,  — 

"  In  consequence,  we  have  resolved  to  promote,  to  the  grade  of  lieu- 
tenant-colonel of  the  infantry,  the  said  St.  Anthony,  with  the  pay  attached 
to  the  rank  thereof;  which  will  be  paid  by  our  marechal-de-camp,  Ricardo 
Xavier  Calval  de  Canha,  provisionally  charged  with  the  command  of  our 
troops  at  the  capital.  Let  our  will  be  executed.  In  faith  of  which,  we  sign 
the  present  decree  with  our  royal  hand. 

"Given  in  our  capital,  Aug.  31,  1814." 


A  MILITARY  SAINT.  327 

And  so  it  is  affirmed  that  some  one  has  drawn  St.  Anthony's 
pay  ever  since,  for  the  name  is  still  on  the  pay-roll. 

We  can  now  imagine  Lieut.-Col.  St.  Anthony  looking  down 
on  mere  civilians,  like  the  patron  saints  of  St.  Louis,  St. 
Thomas,  and  St.  Petersburg. 

As  part  of  my  business  in  San  Antonio  was  to  accumulate 
all  the  truth  I  could,  I  asked  the  aged  gentleman  if  he  knew 
who  dug  the  ditches. 

"  The  Indians  dug  them.  The  priests  told  them  that  there 
was  no  opening  in  heaven  for  them  unless  they  kept  on  dig- 
ging ;  and,  as  the  Indians  believed  them,  they  used  to  fight  for 
the  privilege  of  excavating  those  ditches.  Now,  did  you  ever 
hear  of  such  foolishness  ?  If  these  Indians  had  been  civilized 
and  educated,  they  would  have  known  that  the  proper  way  to 
get  a  title  to  a  heavenly  mansion  was  to  build  a  church,  raise 
corns  on  their  backs  with  a  hair  shirt,  disappoint  their  stomachs 
on  Fridays,  and  persecute  everybody  who  did  not  believe  in  their 
religious  doctrines.  But  they  were  ignorant  savages,  and  did 
not  know  any  better  than  to  believe  that  there  was  merit  in 
digging  ditches.  They  didn't  have  intelligence  to  think  for 
themselves  :  even  if  they  had,  I  reckon  they  would  have  been 
lazy  enough  to  let  the  priests  think  for  them,  and  then  blindly 
follow  their  instructions." 

The  aged  gentleman  would  have  started  a  theological  argu- 
ment at  this  point  if  I  had  not  been  called  away  to  dinner. 

Immense  quantities  of  fruit  and  vegetables  are  raised  in 
the  gardens  irrigated  by  the  water  from  the  ditches.  What  the 
Nile  is  to  the  Egyptian,  and  the  Ganges  to  the  Hindoo,  the 
ditches  are  to  the  San-Antonians. 

I  have  probably  said  enough  about  these  ditches,  but  I  was 
compelled  to  notice  them  continually  while  I  was  in  San  Anto- 
nio. When  they  were  not  obtruding  themselves  into  notice,  I 
was  obtruding  myself  into  them. 


328 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    XXV. 


O  say  that  the  ditches  are  filthy 
is  to  use  language  as  feeble  as 
Watts's  hymns  for  infant  minds. 
Every  spring  they  have  to  be 
cleaned  out.     If  they  were  not,  the 
people  would  have  no  place  to  de- 
posit those  things  which  the  city 
ordinance  requires  shall  be  carted 
out  of  town.    Whenever  the  people 
begin  to  buy  quinine,  and  to  drag 
themselves  around  with  the  agility 
of  a  wet  fly  crawling  up  a  pane  of 
glass  on  a  cold  day,  then  you  may 

know  the  ditches  are  being  cleared  of  their  unhealthy  sediment. 
But  what  should  be  done  with  the  San  Antonio  ditches  ?  I 
never  heard  but  one  man  make  a  practical  suggestion  on  the 
subject.  His  ideas  were  so  original,  that  I  give  them  for  what 
they  are  worth.  I  don't  know  how  much  that  is,  but  I  give 
them,  anyhow.  Said  he,  "You  can  use  these  ditches  to  bury 
people  in.  Use  them  for  a  cemetery.  It  will  save  grave-dig- 
ging. Just  plant  your  leading  citizens  all  the  way  along  up  to 
the  "head  of  the  river  for  three  or  four  miles.  Taking  the 
length  of  the  ditches,  you  would  have  forty-five  miles  of  un- 
rivalled cemetery  privilege.  No  other  city  in  the  world  would 
have  a  graveyard  forty-five  miles  long.  It  would  be  a  great 
inducement  to  invalids  to  visit  the  city.  How  monotonous  it 
is  to  always  be  riding  to  the  same  cemetery.  If  my  plan  were 
adopted,  you  might  attend  a  funeral  in  the  morning  on  the 
upper  Labor  ditch,  on  the  west  side  of  the  town,  and  in  the 


A   PRE-ADAMITE  REPTILE.  329 

afternoon  you  might  have  a  picturesque  ride  up  the  old  Alamo 
ditch,  on  the  east  side.  Instead  of  buying  a  cemetery  lot 
twenty-four  feet  by  twenty-six,  families  could  purchase  a  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  yards  of  graveyard  with  meanders.  In  a 
few  years,  say,  a  couple  of  thousand,  after  all  these  ditches  had 
been  utilized  in  this  way,  and  everybody  had  forgotten  about 
it,  some  geologist  would  discover  bones,  extending  in  a  con- 
tinuous line  from  the  head  of  the  river,  three  miles  above  town, 
to  four  miles  below,  and  would  publish  to  the  world  that  he 
had  discovered  the  remains  of  a  pre-Adamite  reptile  seven 
miles  long,  and  knock  Darwin  higher  than  a  kite  —  all  of  which 
would  be  a  great  thing  for  San  Antonio." 

In  countries  where  there  is  any  live  public  spirit,  the  grave- 
yard is  one  of  the  most  interesting  local  institutions.  To  wan- 
der through  the  quiet  city  of  the  dead,  and  notice  how  much 
better  we  can  spell  than  our  forefathers  could,  fills  one  with 
pride,  and  makes  a  man  popular  with  himself. 

Although  one  of  the  oldest  cities  in  the  United  States,  San 
Antonio  has  no  ancient  graveyard.  If  the  antiquarian  were  to 
spend  months  hunting  up  the  last  resting-places  of  the  old 
San-Antonians  who  died  between  1690  and  1800,  he  would  not 
be  rewarded  by  finding  as  much  as  a  coffin-plate.  Why  it  is 
that  San  Antonio  has  no  ancient  graveyard,  is  a  question  diffi- 
cult to  answer.  The  first  inhabitants  of  the  valley  of  the  San 
Antonio  River  were  Indians.  They  were  in  a  barbarous  condi- 
tion, and,  so  far  as  we  know,  lived  and  died  without  any  ceme- 
tery facilities.  They  seemed  to  have  succeeded  in  passing 
away  without  any  medical  or  clerical  assistance,  and  knew 
nothing  of  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  a  brass  band  at  their 
funerals.  The  only  thing  about  an  Indian  funeral  that  had  a 
modern  appearance  was  the  remains.  How  thankful  we  should 
be  for  the  benefits  and  accessories  of  our  present  civilization  ! 

According  to  the  best  authorities,  the  first  graveyard  was 
established  on  the  western  side  of  the  San  Pedro.  Until  as 
late  as  1840,  it  was  a  dangerous  undertaking  to  bury  the 
dead  in  the  regular  cemetery,  on  account  of  the  unregenerate 
Indian.  This  may  be  an  explanation  of  the  fact,  that  the  floors  of 
the  various  churches  rest  upon  the  closely  packed  bodies  of  the 


330 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


former  inhabitants.  About  the  time  of  the  Mexican  war,  there 
seems  to  have  been  a  regular  system  of  burying  people.  Ad- 
joining the  Catholic  cemetery,  there  was  a  large  vacant  lot, 
enclosed ;  and  in  this,  all  those  not  of  the  faith  were  interred. 
It  is  estimated  that  about  three  thousand  Protestants  and  other 
genuine  sinners  were  buried  in  this  vicinity.  Over  their  re- 
mains, cattle  browse,  streets  have  been  laid  out ;  and  at  the 
,  present  time  it  is  a  fa- 

vorite spot  for  base  -  ball 
players  to  remember  the 
sabbath  on. 

Of  all  those  whose  re- 
mains are  buried  in  this 
potter's  field,  the  grave  of 
but  one  is  marked.  In 
1849  the  remains  of  the 
heroic  Ben  Milam,  who 
fell  at  the  storming  of 
San  Antonio  in  1835,  and 
who  was  buried  in  the 
courtyard  of  the  Vera- 
mendi  House,  where  he 
fell,  were  disinterred,  and 
buried  in  the  centre  of  an 
enclosed  lot.  A  few  years 
ago  some  one  marked  the 
spot  with  a  properly  in- 
scribed stone.  Up  to  the 
time  the  stone  was  placed  over  the  mortal  remains  of  one  of 
the  greatest  men  that  figured  in  Texas  history,  the  road  from 
San  Antonio  to  Fredericksburg  passed  over  his  last  resting- 
place. 

The  whole  city  is  one  vast  graveyard.  The  cheerful  voice 
and  affluent  brogue  of  the  Irish  laborer  is  heard  in  the  "  silent 
tomb  "  of  many  a  forgotten  Spanish  gallant ;  and  the  shovel 
scatters  their  bones  every  time  a  gas-pipe  is  laid. 

The  military  headquarters  of  the  department  of  Texas  are  at 
San  Antonio.  Located  on  an  elevation  to  the  north-east  of 


A    CITY    CEMETERY. 


MILITAR  Y  HEAD Q UARTERS.  3  3 1 

the  city  is  the  government  depot,  built  of  cut  stone.  Here  the 
principal  supplies  of  the  department  are  kept. 

The  department  of  Texas  includes  the  whole  of  the  State, 
and  part  of  the  Indian  Territory,  and  is  under  the  command  of 
Gen.  Ord.1  The  department  comprises  about  twelve  military 
posts,  intended  to  protect  about  fourteen  hundred  miles  of 
frontier.  It  is  intended  by  the  government,  that  the  military 
should  protect  the  frontier,  and  prevent  the  Mexicans  and  In- 
dians from  depredating  on  the  hardy  frontiersman's  live-stock ; 
but  so  far  they  have  not  got  in  the  way  of  the  marauders 
enough  to  seriously  lessen  the  profits,  or  increase  the  risk  in 
their  business. 

Sometimes  the  Mexican  general  in  command  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Rio  Grande  co-operates  with  Gen.  Ord  in  discour- 
aging crime  on  the  frontier,  and  sometimes  he  does  not.  Gen. 
Trevino  was  in  command  of  the  Mexican  frontier  forces  when 
we  were  in  San  Antonio  ;  and  it  was.generally  believed  that  he 
was  anxious  to  suppress  the  raiders  who  had  been  harassing 
the  people  of  the  Texas  frontier  for  years,  and  was  willing,  in 
furtherance  of  that  object,  to  join  forces  with  Gen.  Ord  when 
practicable. 

Gen.  Trevino  had  been  particularly  active  at  the  time  I 
speak  of,  having  pursued  and  captured  a  small  band  of  Indian 
raiders.  He  was  invited  to  San  Antonio,  where  the  citizens 
gave  a  banquet  in  his  honor. 

I  had  an  interesting  conversation  with  Col.  Mocha  on  the 
subject  of  frontier  outrages.  The  colonel  is  proprietor  of  a 
large  wholesale  grocery  establishment.  His  principal  business 
is  with  the  military  posts  on  the  frontier. 

"  I  did  not  see  you  at  the  reception  of  Gen.  Trevino.  It  was 
a  most  enjoyable  affair,"  I  remarked. 

The  colonel  groaned  as  if  he  had  been  eating  green  apples. 

I  continued,  "  Gen.  Ord  is  satisfied  that  raiding  is  a  thing  of 
the  past.  Hereafter  the  white-winged  messenger  of  peace  will 
preside  over  our  border  relations,  while  war,  grim-visaged  war, 
will  smooth  out  his  wrinkled  front,  and  "  — 

1  Since  this  was  written,  Gen.  Augur  has  succeeded  Gen.  Ord  in  command  of  the  depart- 
ment of  Texas. 


332 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


"  Please  stop,  young  man.  Listen  to  me  a  few  minutes.  Do 
you  think  I  am  a  man  of  sound  mind  ? " 

"  Why,  yes,  colonel.  I  have  no  doubt  on  the  subject." 
"Either  I  am  ripe  for  a  lunatic-asylum,  or  else  these  folks 
that  have  been  wining  and  dining  Gen.  Trevino  are.  Have  I 
got  incipient  softening  of  the  brain  ?  Are  my  worst  fears  fully 
realized  ? "  and  he  passed  his  hands  wearily  over  his  dome  of 
thought. 

"My  friend,"  continued  Col.  Mocha,  "are  you  aware  that  the 
United-States  Government  squanders  nearly  two  millions  annu- 
ally in  this  depart- 
ment, and  that  most 
of  it  is  spent  right 
here  in  San  Anto- 
nio ?  Did  you  never 
suspect  that  this  two 
millions  is  the  water 
that  keeps  the  mill 
going  ?  Don't  you 
know  that  Texas  de- 
pends on  the  frontier 
posts  to  buy  up  all 
the  corn,  hay,  wood, 
fodder,  oats,  and 
other  supplies? 
Don't  you  know, 
that,  if  the  military 
headquarters  were 
moved,  the  city  authorities  would  have  to  go  to  buying  mowing- 
machines  on  credit,  if  they  could  get  them,  to  keep  down  the 
grass  on  Commerce  Street  ?  Oh,  I'm  sick  !  I'm  sick  !  I'm  a 
whole  hospital  myself." 

"  But,  colonel,  please  explain  how  the  visit  of  Gen.  Trevino 
is  going  to  spoil  things  so  much." 

"  I  don't  wonder  at  your  failing  to  see  what  the  smartest 
business-men  are  blind  to.  What  is  the  reason  the  United- 
States  Government  keeps  troops  down  here  on  the  border  ? 
To  whom  are  we  indebted  for  all  this  fatness,  all  this  two 


'I'M    A    WHOLE    HOSPITAL." 


THE    WAR-DEPARTMENT.  333 

millions  expended,  but  to  these  identical  Kickapoos  and  Lipans 
that  have  been  killed,  captured,  and  discouraged  by  this  identi- 
cal Gen.  Trevino  ?  I'd  like  to  have  him  out  in  the  woods.  I'd 
teach  him  that  the  poor,  despised  Indian  fiad  some  friends  left ; 
I'd  teach  him  to  ruin  Western  Texas  this  way.  Eighty-five 
Indians  captured  and  six  killed  —  just  think  of  it!  There  will 
not  be  enough  left  to  get  up  a  raid  once  a  year ;  and  the  conse- 
quence will  be,  all  the  troops  in  this  department  will  be  ordered 
to  Dakota  or  Nevada,  and  the  merchants  and  contractors  up 
there  will  literally  steal  our  money  from  us.  It  ain't  good  for 
me  to  talk  about  it.  It  makes  me  sick.  And  after  this  Gen. 
Trevino  has  as  good  as  ruined  us,  the  citizens  here  will  turn 
out  and  welcome  him  as  if  he  had  given  them  twenty  dollars 
apiece  to  be  present." 

"But,  colonel,  remember  the  loss  of  life  and  stock  on  the 
frontier." 

"  I  remember  it  well  enough.  Once  in  a  great  while  those 
poor  Indians  come  over,  kill  half  a  dozen  Mexican  herders,  and 
drive  a  few  stock  back.  Now,  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  holy, 
can't  Western  Texas  afford  to  lose  a  few  Mexican  shepherds, 
when  she  gets  nearly  two  million  dollars  in  government  expen- 
ditures for  them  ?  Why,  I'd  be  willing  to  help  the  Indians  catch 
them,  rather  than  that  all  these  troops  be  moved  away.  Isn't  it 
better  that  a  few  people  on  the  frontier  be  killed  and  scalped 
than  that  we  should  all  starve  to  death  ?  And  here  we  have 
gone  and  made  such  an  infernal  row  that  the  Mexican  Govern- 
ment, thinking  we  were  in  earnest,  have  actually  gone  to  work 
killing  off  these  Indians,  the  only  real  friends  we  had  in  Mexico. 
It  is  too  bad.  Something  ought  to  be  done  about  it." 

I  said,  "  I  presume  there  will  be  a  few  Indians  left  to  keep 
up  the  appearance  of  raiding,  —  enough  to  keep  the  troops 
here,  anyhow.  But,  as  you  say,  it  does  look  as  if  suppressing 
raids  from  Mexico  is  being  overdone.  There  should  be  mod- 
eration in  all  things." 

"If,"  said  the  colonel,  "there  are  a  few  Indians  left  who  are 
willing  to  help  us  out  with  an  occasional  raid,  Gen.  Trevino' 
will  make  hash  out  of  them  as  soon  as  he  gets  back,  as  he  has 
been  ovated  so  much  here  and  in  Galveston.     Just  as  likely  as 


334  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

not  he  will  go  back  and  have  another  batch  of  our  Indian 
friends  shot,  and  make  another  trip.  After  he  has  done  that 
about  once,  he  will  have  to  go  a  long  way  to  find  Gen.  Ord  and 
his  troops.  There  \flll  not  be  one  left  in  the  department.  I 
reckon  Gen.  Ord  wants  to  be  ordered  North,  and  that's  why  he 
has  encouraged  Trevino  in  his  outrages  on  these  Indian  allies 
of  ours." 

"  Well,  colonel,  what  is  your  remedy  ? " 

"  In  the  first  place,  I  would  call  a  monstrous  indignation 
meeting  on  the  plaza.  The  first  resolution  would  be  to  ask  the 
Mexican  consul  at  San  Antonio,  Senor  Ornelas,  to  request  his 
government  to  remove  from  his  position  Gen.  Geronimo  Tre- 
vino for  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors,  for  killing  and  other- 
wise discouraging  Kickapoo  and  Lipan  Indians,  in  a  time  of 
profound  peace,  the  raiding  Indians  being  the  friends  and  bene- 
factors of  Western  Texas,  and  also  requesting  Gen.  Trevino  to 
restore  to  those  Indians  their  weapons,  ponies,  scalps  of  Texans, 
and  other  personal  property.  The  second  resolution  would  be 
the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  take  up  a  collection  for 
widows  and  orphans  of  such  Indians  as  may  have  been  killed 
by  order  of  our  enemy,  Gen.  Trevino,  who  sho.uld  be  burned  in 
effigy.  But  there  is  no  use  in  talking  :  there  is  no  public  spirit 
nowadays,  anyhow." 

The  colonel,  no  doubt,  would  have  said  more  if  he  had  not 
felt  sick.  Talking  on  the  subject  had  made  him  feel  so  ill  that 
he  had  to  leave  me,  and  go  in  search  of  a  stimulant. 

Much  of  the  bustle  and  stir  that  are  to  be  observed  in  San 
Antonio  is  due  to  the  presence  of  the  military  headquarters. 
It  costs  the  government  several  million  dollars  annually  to 
protect  the  Texas  frontier ;  and  a  great  part  of  this  money, 
directly  and  indirectly,  goes  to  San  Antonio.  You  can  hardly 
look  around  anywhere  in  the  city  without  seeing  U.S.  on  some- 
thing. Sometimes  the  omnipresent  initials  are  on  a  mule,  on  a 
soldier's  cap,  on  a  government-wagon,  and  not  unfrequently  on 
the  ragged  blanket  of  one  of  the  miserable  beggars  that  are  to 
be  met  with  at  every  corner. 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  and  written  in  favor  of  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  army.  It  is  flippantly  alleged  that  the  country  has 


"  RESPE  CTFULL  Y  REFERRED: 


335 


no  need  of  a  standing  army,  which  is  a  perpetual  menace  to  our 
republican  form  of  government  This  aspect  of  the  question 
I  have  no  disposition  or  intention  to  discuss  on  this  occasion  ; 
but  when  the  cavillers  go  on  to  say  that  the*  officers  of  the  army 
eat  the  bread  of  idleness,  then  I  propose  to  join  the  issue.  I 
maintain  that  a  harder-worked  set  of  men  exists  in  no  country. 
And  those  highest  in  rank  have  the  most  to  do.  So  far  from 
reducing  the  army,  it  ought  to  be  re-enforced,  as  the  present 
force  is  overtasking  its  strength.  In  order  to  give  the  outside 
public  an  insight  into  the  amount  of  labor  that  devolves  upon 
heads  of  departments,  the  following  is  respectfully  submitted. 
And  it  is  no  imaginary  sketch  :  what  is  stated  actually  occurred. 

On  the  eleventh  day  of  November,  1878,  Capt.  C.,  of  the 
Thirty-fourth  Infantry,  addressed  an  official  communication  to 
the  assistant  adjutant-general  of  the  department  of  Texas, 
stating  that  Private  Hugo  Anderson  lost  or  destroyed  one  mos- 
quito-bar frame,  the  property  of  the  United  States,  and  request- 
ing that  a  board  of  survey  be  convened  to  assess  the  money- 
value  thereof. 

I  made  fervid  inquiry,  and  found  that  the  aforesaid  mosquito- 
bar  frame  was  very  old  and  rickety,  having  seen  much  active 
service,  and  being  so  decrepit  that  the  President  would  have 
been  justified  in  placing  it  upon  the  retired  list  with  other  old 
veterans,  so  unserviceable  was  its  condition.  Capt.  C.,  who 
was  well  and  personally  acquainted  with  the  frame,  expressed  a 
desire  to.  swear,  that,  for  several  years  past,  the  mosquito-bar 
frame  was  not  fit  to  start  a  fire  with.  Upon  mentioning  fifty 
cents  as  the  cash  value  of  the  frame,  Capt.  C.  was  astonished 
at  my  liberality,  stating  positively,  that,  when  perfectly  new, 
fifteen  cents  would  have  been  an  extravagantly  preposterous 
offer.  In  all  sober  earnest,  the  bar-frame  might  have  been 
worth,  during  mosquito  season,  about  ten  cents. 

But  to  return  to  Capt.  C.'s  communication  asking  for  a  board 
of  survey.  It  went  first  to  Assistant  Adjutant-Gen.  Thomas 
N.  Vincent,  who  indorsed,  under  date  of  Nov.  11,  1878, — 

"  Respectfully  referred  to  the  chief  quartermaster  of  the  department  to 
know  if  there  is  not  some  other  method  of  ascertaining  the  value  of  a  mos- 
quito-bar frame  than  by  a  board  of  survey." 


336  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

On  Nov.  12,  Brevet  Brig.-Gen.  and  Chief  Quartermaster 
Benjamin  C.  Card  indorses, — 

"  Respectfully  returned  to  the  adjutant-general,  department  of  Texas. 
The  mosquito-bar  frames  on  hand  at  this  depot  have  been  here  for  a  long 
time,  and  there  is  no  record  of  their  cost." 

The  next  prominent  official  at  San  Antonio,  who  was  to  be 
worried  by  that  ten-cent  mosquito-bar  frame,  was  the  depart- 
ment commander  himself.  Indorsement  No.  3  reads,  under 
date  of  Nov.  14,  1878, — 

Respectfully  forwarded  to  the  adjutant-general  of  the  army,  with  the  re- 
quest that  the  price  of  a  mosquito-bar  frame  may  be  communicated,  in  order 
to  furnish  information  to  the  board  of  survey,  in  case  one  is  to  be  convened, 
there  being  no  data  here  to  cover  the  case. 

(Signed)  E.  O.  C.  ORD, 

Brig.-Gen.  U.  S.  Army,  Commanding. 

The  next  thing  we  hear  of  the  ghost  of  the  mosquito-bar 
frame  is,  that  it  arrived  safely  at  Washington.  The  fourth  in- 
dorsement reads,  — 

WASHINGTON,  Nov.  22,  1878. 
Respectfully  referred  to  the  quartermaster-general. 

(Signed)  E.  D.  TOWNSEND, 

Adjutant-General. 

But  the  ghost  obtained  little  rest  from  the  quartermaster- 
general,  although  it  learned  something  of  its  past  history.  In- 
dorsement No.  5  reads,  — 

Respectfully  referred  to  the  adjutant-general  of  the  army.  A  reference 
to  invoice  48,  abstract  E,  return  of  Lieut.-Col.  S.  B.  Holabird,  department 
quartermaster-general  for  first  quarter  1874,  shows  that  3,376  mosquito- 
bars,  and  1,790  frames,  were  turned  over  to  him  by  Capt.  A.  N.  Cherbonnier, 
medical  storekeeper,  under  orders  of  the  surgeon-general,  dated  Feb.  16, 
1874,  for  free  distribution  to  different  posts.  Those  now  in  possession  of 
Capt.  C.,  Thirty-fourth  Infantry,  are  part  of  the  same  lot.  It  is  recommended 
that  these  papers  be  referred  to  the  surgeon-general  of  the  army  for  remark. 

By  order  of 

STEWART  VAN  VLIET, 
Dept.  Quartermaster,  Brevet  Major-Gen.,  U.S.A. 

Received  back  Nov.  30. 


11  RESPECTFULLY  REFERRED."  337 

I  should  remark,  that  each  of  these  indorsements  is  accom- 
panied by  cabalistic  hieroglyphics  and  numbers  indicating  the 
volume  in  which  all  this  nonsense  had  been  copied. 

But  the  poor  ghost  of  the  frame  !  After  all  this  misery  and 
railroad  travel,  the  ghost  is  officially  informed  that  he  is  of  no 
value.  But  in  obedience  to  military  discipline  it  went  back  to 
E.  D.  Townsend,  who,  with  almost  contemptuous  brevity,  refers 
the  matter  to  the  surgeon  -  general,  who  knew  all  about  the 
antecedents  of  the  bar-frame ;  for  he  respectfully  refers  it  back, 
under  date  of  Dec.  4,  1878,  to  the  adjutant-general,  with  the 
additional  remark,  — 

The  mosquito-bar  frame  in  question,  it  appears,  is  one  of  a  lot  left  over 
from  the  late  war,  which  were  unsuitable  for  the  hospital  bedstead  in  use  in 
the  army.  Their  sale  was  authorized  by  the  Honorable  the  secretary  of 
war,  Oct.  4,  1873;  t>ut  no  advantageous  sale  could  be  made  of  them  at  San 
Antonio,  Tex.,  at  which  point  they  were  stored.  Consequently,  under  sub- 
sequent authority  of  the  secretary  of  war,  dated  Feb.  13,  1874,  they  were 
turned  over  to  the  quartermaster's  department  for  gratuitous  distribution  to 
posts,  as  stated  in  fifth  indorsement.  Under  the  circumstances,  I  am  of 
the  opinion  the  one  in  question  has  no  ratable  value. 

J.  W.  BARNES, 

Surgeon-  General. 

The  original  voucher  of  Capt  C,  covered  with  indorsements 
in  all  colors  of  ink,  stamped  and  ruled  from  one  end  to  the 
other,  goes  from  the  surgeon-general,  Barnes,  back  to  the  famil- 
iar office  of  Adjutant-Gen.  Townsend,  who  on  the  seventh  day 
of  December,  1878,  peremptorily  orders  the  ghost  back  to  Texas, 
calling  attention  to  the  fifth  and  seventh  indorsements.  Not- 
withstanding the  cold  weather,  the  ghost  of  the  missing  mos- 
quito-bar frame  arrived  back  in  his  old  home  in  the  Alamo  City ; 
for  on  Dec.  18,  1878,  he  is  ordered  by  the  assistant  adjutant- 
general  of  the  department  of  Texas,  Thomas  M.  Vincent,  to 
appear  before  the  Board  of  Survey  that  Capt.  C.  asked  for 
before  all  this  misery  began. 

On  Dec.  18  an  order  was  issued  nominating  two  United- 
States  officers 

To  convene  at  eleven  o'clock  of  the  loth,  to  assess  the  money-value,  and 

22 


338 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


fix  the  responsibility  for  the  alleged  loss,  of  one  mosquito-bar  frame,  the 
property  of  the  United  States,  for  which  Capt.  C.  is  responsible. 
By  command  of  Brig.-Gen.  Ord. 

THOMAS  M.  VINCENT,  Asst.  Adjt.-Gen. 
Countersigned  by 

HUGH  BROWN,  Aide-de-Camp. 

This  story  of  the  ghost  of  a  mosquito-bar  frame,  which  is 
official,  draws  to  a  close.     The  Board  of  Survey  convened  at 


MEETING    OF    THE    MILITARY    BOARD. 


the  appointed  time,  the  faces  of  the  members  showing  that 
they  felt  the  fearful  responsibilities  resting  upon  them  ;  but, 
nevertheless,  the  vastness  of  the  absurdity  seems  to  have  struck 
them,  for  their  report  reads,  — 


THE  SAN  ANTONIO  BOY.  339 

"  DBC.  92. 

'•  The  Board  met  pursuant  to  order,  the  members  being  present,  and, 
having  maturely  deliberated  on  the  matter  presented  for  their  consideration, 
are  of  the  opinion  that  the  interest  of  the  general  government  will  be  in  no 
way  prejudiced  by  permitting  Capt.  C.  to  drop  the  mosquito-bar  frame  from 
his  return  without  further  correspondence  on  the  subject.  The  frame  is 
without  value  ;  and,  having  been  turned  over  by  the  medical  department  for 
gratuitous  distribution  to  the  troops,  it  is  not  apparent  how  the  bars  can  be 
made  stores  for  issue  upon  requisition.  The  frames  are  of  no  possible 
value.  The  medical  department  did  a  wise  thing  in  having  the  responsi- 
bility for  them  transferred  to  the  quartermaster's  department.  The  Board 
is  certain  that  the  quality  of  the  frame  reflected  no  credit  on  the  purchasers. 
For  the  reasons  above  stated,  the  Board  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  most 
ready  settlement  of  the  question  is  to  authorize  Capt.  C.  to  drop  the  frame 
from  his  return,  which  the  Board  accordingly  recommends." 


And  yet,  in  the  face  of  all  this,  there  are  newspapers  and 
congressmen  who  assert  that  the  army  ought  to  be  reduced 
because  there  is  nothing  for  the  officers  to  do. 

While  in  San  Antonio  the  only  person  noticed,  who  was  more 
over-worked  than  the  soldier,  was  the  schoolboy. 

When  it  comes  to  driving  dull  care  away,  the  San  Antonio 
boy  is  not  without  resources.  He  is  familiar  with  all  the  vari- 
ous games  that  follow  each  other  in  succession  ;  he  sees,  too, 
that  everybody  else  is  kept  posted  on  the  subject.  In  winter 
and  in  early  spring  he  is  responsible,  with  the  aid  of  his  kite, 
for  runaway  teams,  vehicles  converted  into  kindling-wood,  and 
an  undue  expansion  of  the  mortuary  report.  When,  thanks  to 
the  police,  he  no  longer  amuses  himself  with  the  kite,  he  next 
jeopardizes  life  and  property  with  his  little  baseball.  Then 
he  smashes  the  windows,  and  wounds  the  legs  of  respectable 
citizens  with  his  top.  Just  about  the  time  people  have  got 
used  to  tops  buzzing  about  their  ears,  the  "nigger-shooter" 
mania  breaks  out.  One  live  boy  with  a  nigger-shooter,  who  is 
disposed  to  be  industrious,  and  not  above  his  business,  can  be 
looked  up  to  with  awe,  and  have  his  opinions  commented  on  all 
over  his  ward.  After  all  his  fingers  have  been  crippled,  and  a 
city  ordinance  has  been  passed  making  it  a  penitentiary  offence 
for  a  boy  to  carry  concealed  weapons,  he  takes  steps  toward 
future  distinction  as  a  blackleg  by  gambling  with  marbles.  All 


340  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

these  innocent  games  follow  each  other  very  much  as  the 
mumps,  measles,  scarlet-fever,  and  children's  other  diseases  do. 
As  a  steady  pastime,  he  relies  on  making  the  connection,  with 
a  piece  of  twine,  between  an  empty  oyster-can  and  the  con- 
tinuation of  a  dog.  Attending  to  the  fruit-crop  occupies  his 
leisure  moments. 

One  evening,  when  out  walking,  we  noticed  several  ladies 
and  gentlemen  quietly  promenading  up  Avenue  C.,  enjoying  the 
pleasant  evening  air.  They  were  laughing  and  talking,  and  ap- 
parently in  good  spirits,  when  suddenly  the  air  was  filled  with 
female  shrieks,  cries  of  warning,  and  the  party  scattered  like  a 
covey  of  quail.  They  jumped  up  and  thrashed  the  atmosphere 
with  their  arms  and  legs.  Then  one  of  them  rushed  off,  but 
returned  immediately  with  an  armful  of  bowlders,  which  he 
hurled  with  fearful  energy  and  dire  imprecations  at  some  object 
on  the  ground.  An  enormous  snake  was  wriggling  across  the 
street.  The  gentleman  with  the  bowlders  still  pursued  the  rep- 
tile, while  a  stout  old  gentleman  stooped  down  every  once  in  a 
while,  and  fairly  warmed  it  with  his  cane.  "  Ha,  take  that !  " 
puffed  the  old  gentleman,  as  he  leaned  over  and  hit  a  very 
effective  blow.  "  I'll  fetch  him,"  shrieked  the  philanthropist, 
who  had  just  returned  with  a  fresh  bosom  full  of  geological 
specimens,  one  of  which  he  hurled  with  such  accuracy  that  it 
caromed  on  the  elbow  of  the  fat  man,  who,  hobbling  up  to  the 
offender,  began,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  to  chastise  him.  While 
the  two  were  fighting,  and  a  third  member  of  the  party,  who 
had  been  standing  on  the  fence,  was  trying  to  part  them,  a  fair 
specimen  of  the  San  Antonio  boy,  who  was  behind  a  tree, 
pulled  in  on  a  long  string  a  dangerous-looking  leather  strap, 
shook  himself,  and  murmured,  — 

"  Who  wouldn't  be  a  boy  ?  " 

The  excitement  passed  over.  The  boy  set  his  snake  again, 
and  waited.  Two  soldiers  belonging  to  the  Twenty-second 
Infantry  came  along.  Just  as  they  reached  the  reptile,  it  coiled 
itself  up,  and  struck  at  them  viciously,  and  then  started  to 
wriggle  across  the  street.  One  of  the  soldiers  jumped  at  least 
ten  feet  six  inches,  while  the  other  recklessly  sought  to  mash 


A    WICKED  SELL. 


341 


the  head  of  the  venomous  reptile  with  the  heel  of  his  boot. 
Seeing  the  boy  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street,  the  kind- 
hearted  soldier  called  out  to  him,  "  Run,  sonny,  run !  he  is 
making  for  you."  The  boy,  thinking  the  soldier  was  going  to 
chastise  him,  ran  like  a  turkey,  closely  pursued  by  the  snake, 
which  in  turn  was  mutilated  from  time  to  time  by  the  boot-heel 


'I'LL    FETCH    HIM." 


of  the  soldier.  What  the  final  result  was,  I  do  not  know,  as 
they  all  three  turned  the  corner  and  disappeared,  — the  boy  in 
the  lead,  the  snake  wriggling  frantically  a  few  feet  behind  him, 
the  soldier  vainly  endeavoring  to  destroy  the  reptile,  while  the 
indignant  spectators  talked  about  lynching  the  soldier  for  as- 
saulting a  boy. 


342 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


As  I  remarked  at  the  outset,  the  San  Antonio  boy  is  not 
utterly  devoid  of  expedients  to  drive  off  dull  care. 

Almost  every  boy  we  met  had  sore  eyes.  Sore  eyes  do  not 
make  a  boy  amiable.  I  asked  one  whose  head  was  bandaged, 
"  Got  sore  eyes,  sonny  ? " 

"Oh,  no !  of  course  not.  I  tied  up  my  eyes  because  I've  got 
a  chilblain  on  my  ankle." 


<?£  '  !    ~.Jj    '•' 


THE  HUNGRY-LOOKING    TEXAN. 


343 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 


T  happened  in  San  Antonio.    One 
of  the  parties  was  a  consump- 
tive   from    Connecticut  ;    the 
other,   a    commercial    traveller 
from   New  York.     They   were 
stopping  at  the  same  hotel,  and 
occupied  adjoining  rooms.    The 
drummer  was  short  of  money  : 
he  had  a  splendid  pistol,  and  he 
thought  he  would  try  and  sell 
it.     He  said  to  himself,  "  I  won- 
der if  that  hungry-looking  Texan  next  door  doesn't  want  to  buy 
a  pistol ! "     So,  putting  the  weapon  in  his  breast-pocket,  he 
walked  into  his  neighbor's  room. 

The  invalid  from  Connecticut  had  been  reading  about  a 
noted  Texas  desperado  for  whom  there  was  a  large  reward 
offered,  and  he  fancied  the  description  fitted  his  unknown 
visitor:  consequently,  when  the  New-York  drummer  entered 
the  room,  shut  the  door,  and  put  his  hand  in  his  breast-pocket, 
the  Northern  invalid  began  to  'shiver,  and  think  of  his  past 
life. 

"  What  do-do-do-do  you  want  ? "  asked  the  invalid. 
The  drummer  drew  a  large  ivory-handled  revolver  (answering 
the  description  of  the  one  that  the  celebrated  desperado  used 
on  strangers),  and  said,  — 

"  I  want  twenty-five  dollars  for  this  pistol." 
The  trembling  hand  of  the  invalid  could  hardly  find  its  way 
into  his  pocket. 


344  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  It  is  a  good  pistol :  it  never  misses  fire,"  said  the  drum- 
mer, bringing  it  to  a  half-cock. 

"  Take  you-you-your  money,"  gasped  the  invalid. 

The  drummer  took  the  money,  thanked  him,  laid  the  pistol 
on  the  table,  and  went  out. 

As  soon  as  the  door  was  shut,  the  invalid  from  Connecticut 
breathed  a  huge  sigh  of  relief,  and  said  to  himself,  "  I'm  glad 
the  Texas  desperado  took  my  money,  and  spared  my  life. 
What  a  country  this  is,  where  you  are  robbed  in  broad  daylight 
in  a  hotel !  I'll  leave  to-morrow  for  the  North." 

As  soon  as  the  drummer  got  into  his  room,  he  remarked,  "  Im 
in  luck.  I'm  glad  that  old  Texas  desperado  bought  my  revolver. 
Wonder  how  many  men  he'll  shoot  with  it !  I'll  get  out  of 
here,  now  that  I  have  money  to  pay  my  bill." 

A  short  time  afterward  the  Northern  papers  published  a 
wonderful  story,  telling  how  a  Texas  desperado  robbed  an 
invalid  in  a  San  Antonio  hotel. 

It  is  astonishing  on  what  a  small  foundation  of  fact  some  of 
the  Northern  papers  can  base  a  tremendous  display  of  well- 
feigned  horror  and  pharisaical  grief  at  the  barbarity  of  Texans. 
Newspapers  that  fail  to  perceive  any  thing  out  of  the  way  in  a 
prize-fight  are  inconsolable  with  grief  at  a  San  Antonio  bull- 
fight that  never  took  place.  It  fairly  makes  their  cheeks,  sup- 
posing a  newspaper  to  have  cheeks,  tingle  with  the  blush  of 
shame  when  they  think  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  being 
guilty  of  such  atrocities.  When  the  imaginative  and  gifted 
editor  of  a  New-York  or  Boston  paper  has  concocted  some 
unusually  stupid  cock-and-bull  story  illustrative  of  t"he  deprav- 
ity of  the  human  race,  he  does  not  think  he  has  deviated  suf- 
ficiently from  the  path  of  rectitude,  unless  he  locates  it  at  San 
Antonio. 

The  fact  is,  that  the  harmless  farce  usually  called  a  bull- 
fight has  not  been  performed  in  San  Antonio  for  five  or  six 
years.  All  the  so-called  bull-fights  that  have  been  perpetrated 
in  San  Antonio  since  1849  have  lacked  a  great  deal  of  being 
as  tragic  as  the  public  have  been  led  to  suppose.  When  bull- 
fights were  not  forbidden  by  a  city  ordinance,  the  arena  was 
enclosed  by  a  board  fence,  affording  unusual  facilities  for  the 


THE  BULL-FIGHT.  345 

protection  of  the  heroic  matador,  who  could  climb  over  in  case 
the  bull,  in  his  wild  endeavors  to  escape,  should  run  in  his 
direction.  I  do  not  wish  to  cover  up  or  hide  the  truth.  In 
one  or  two  instances  the  bull-fighters  have  not  come  out 
wholly  unscathed.  In  1853  a  young  Mexican  matador,  re- 
markable for  his  fearlessness  and  wonderful  agility,  was  fright- 
fully gored  by  a  splinter  a  quarter  of  an  inch  long,  on  the  top 
of  the  fence  over  which  he  was  crawling  in  a  great  hurry,  the 
pine  splinter  penetrating  even  through  the  seat  of  a  pair  of  old 
buckskin  breeches  that  he  had  borrowed  for  the  occasion.  But 
such  horrible  scenes  were  rare  ;  although,  on  another  occasion, 
A.D.  1739,  one  of  the  bull-fighters,  being  tired,  went  fast  asleep 
in  the  gory  arena ;  and  the  infuriated  bull,  seeking  to  make  his 
escape,  stumbled  over  the  sleeping  matador,  and  the  poor  brute, 
breaking  its  leg,  had  to  be  shot.  This  was  claimed  to  be  the 
greatest  bull-fight  that  had  ever  taken  place  in  San  Antonio. 
All  the  others  were  comparatively  harmless.  There  is  a  dim, 
misty  legend,  that,  in  1773,  an  old  cow  being  substituted  for 
the  usual  ferocious  bull,  a  Mexican,  while  peddling  peanuts  in 
the  arena  to  the  ensanguined  gladiators,  was  chased  ;  and,  just 
as  he  was  climbing  over  the  fence,  the  cow  helped  him  to  the 
height  of  about  fifteen  feet,  and  he  demoralized  the  governor- 
general's  (Don  Bustamente's)  new  stove-pipe  hat  when  he  came 
down  on  it.  The  governor-general  took  it  good-humoredly, 
and  straightened  out  his  battered  hat  with  his  boot,  remarking 
gravely,  "Good  friend,  you  seem  to  think  this  is  Ascension 
Sunday."  But  even  this  is  not  well  authenticated. 

It  is  true,  that,  in  1878,  there  was  an  attempt  to  get  up  a 
fight  between  a  toothless,  decrepit  old  lion,  far  gone  in  con- 
sumption, and  a  Texas  bull ;  but  there  was  no  fight  to  speak 
of,  and  the  circus  gentlemen  from  the  North,  who  sought  to 
revive  the  sports  of  the  Roman  amphitheatre,  made  a  financial 
fizzle  of  it,  and  were  sold  out  by  the  sheriff.  But  in  the  news- 
papers it  was  all  charged  to  the  brutality  of  the  San-Antonians. 

Some  of  the  foreign  invalids  who  come  to  San  Antonio  meet 
with  many  disappointments.  I  saw  one  of  them  a  few  days 
ago.  He  had  read  in  the  Northern  papers  about  the  Lord's 
Day  being  desecrated  by  bull-fights  in  San  Antonio,  and  he 


346  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

believed  every  word  of  it,  and  a  great  deal  more.  He  was  so 
inexpressibly  shocked  and  disgusted  that  he  felt  it  his  duty  to 
come  to  San  Antonio  for  his  health,  where  he  could  see  those 
bull-fights  in  all  their  original  sinfulness.  As  soon  as  he  got 
out  of  the  car,  he  asked  if  he  was  in  time  for  that  evening's 
bull-fight.  He  stated  that  bull-fighting  was  an  outrage  on 
American  civilization,  and  said  he  came  here  that  he  might 
benefit  by  the  climate.  When  he  found  out  that  the  city  coun- 
cil had  prohibited  bull-fighting,  he  seemed  hurt.  He  waited  a 
whole  week,  expecting  to  be  consoled  by  a  bowie-knife  duel 
on  the  plaza  ;  but,  finding  his  appetite  growing  worse  all  the 
time,  he  returned  to  his  home.  He  warns  invalids,  through 
the  press,  not  to  come  to  Texas,  as  the  reported  bull-fights  are 
a  myth,  and  the  climate  is  too  dusty  for  any  except  healthy 
invalids.  In  a  word,  San  Antonio  is  not  a  good  place  for  a  sick 
man  who  is  suffering  to  see  a  bull-fight. 

Having  occasion,  while  in  San  Antonio,  to  purchase  a  pack- 
age of  smoking-tobacco  and  a  pipe,  the  doctor  stepped  into  a 
grocery-store  that  had  in  front  of  it  a  statute  of  one  of  the 
first  converts  to  Christianity  in  the  San  Antonio  valley.  The 
establishment  was  kept  by  a  man  and  his  wife,  who,  judging 
by  their  appearance  and  accent,  were  new  arrivals  from  the 
North.  After  the  doctor  had  received  his  tobacco,  and  was 
about  to  pay  for  it,  the  proprietor  said,  — 

"  You  have  not  yet  hadflefon." 

The  doctor  had  not  the  most  remote  idea  what  pelon  was. 
It  might  have  been  the  Mexican  name  for  the  small-pox,  for  all 
he  knew.  In  fact,  he  was  rather  inclined  to  think  that  it  was  ; 
although  it  might  be  some  Mexican  dish,  made  hot  enough 
with  red  pepper  to  burn  a  hole  in  the  roof  of  a  stranger's 
mouth.  But  .the  doctor  never  allows  any  one  to  think  that 
there  is  any  thing  in  earth  below,  in  the  firmament  above,  or  in 
the  waters  under  the  earth,  that  he  is  not  as  familiar  with  as  if 
he  had  made  it  himself :  so  he  answered  with  perfect  compla- 
cency, "  Oh,  yes  !  I  had  it  when  I  was  a  child,  very  bad,  on  both 
sides ;  but  thanks  to  a  strong  constitution,  and  there  being  no 
doctors  in  the  neighborhood,  I  managed  to  pull  through." 

The  storekeeper  stared  wildly,  and  then  repeated.  — 


PELON.  347 

"  You  have  not  yet  had  your  pelon" 

"  Oh  !  "  said  the  doctor,  "  I  did  not  understand  you  at  first. 
No,  I  haven't  had  my  pelon  yet." 

The  doctor  perceived  that  he  had  made  a  mistake.  Pelon 
was  not  a  disease,  as  he  had  at  first  imagined :  very  likely  it 
was  some  new-fangled  drink.  It  would  never  do  for  the  store- 
keeper to  think  that  the  doctor  was  not  familiar  with  pelon : 
so  he  remarked,  "  No,  I  haven't  had  my  pelon  yet  ;  but,  if  you 
will  join  me,  we  will  step  around  and  have  it  now." 

The  storekeeper  indulged  in  such  immoderate  laughter  that 
the  doctor  had  to  wait  for  some  time  until  the  man  had  become 
calm. 

"  Another  stranger  fooled  on  pelon  !  I  got  sold  worse  than 
that.  Do  you  know  that  my  not  knowing  what  pelon  was 
nearly  consigned  me  to  the  poorhouse  ?  I  came  very  near 
going  into  bankruptcy,  —  genuine,  old-fashioned  bankruptcy, 
where  you  don't  have  any  thing  left  when  you  get  through." 

"  How  was  that  ? "  said  the  doctor. 

"  Well,  you  see,  me  and  my  wife  came  here  perfect  strangers. 
We  didn't  know  any  thing  of  the  customs  and  manners  of  the 
people.  We  opened  a  nice  family  grocery-store,  that  had  in  it 
every  thing  the  public  needed.  The  very  first  customer,  as 
soon  as  we  had  sold  him  the  several  articles  he  wanted,  said, 
'Well,  now,  I  want  some  pelon'  I  didn't  know  what  it  was; 
but,  not  wanting  to  show  my  ignorance,  I  told  him  that  I  had 
not  got  all  my  goods  in  yet,  but  would  have  a  large  invoice  of 
pelon  by  next  freight-train.  He  went  off  apparently  displeased 
about  something,  and  next  day  I  saw  him  coming  out  of  the 
rival  establishment.  He  had  transferred  his  custom  to  where 
they  kept  pelon.  Every  customer,  white,  black,  and  Mexican, 
wanted  pelon  ;  and,  because  I  didn't  have  it  right  then,  they 
never  came  back  a  second  time.  Some  of  them  would  return 
what  they  had  ordered,  and  go  off  mad,  just  because  I  told 
them  I  was  out  of  pelon,  or  that  I  did  not  keep  it  on  hand. 
My  wife  said  to  me,  '  You  must  go  and  buy  some  pelon :  I 
could  have  sold  bushels  of  it  this  morning.'  That  evening  two 
negro  boys  were  passing.  One  said,  '  Let's  go  in  heah,  and 
buy  dat  ar ; '  to  which  the  other  responded,  '  You  don't  cotch 


348  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

me  gwine  into  no  place  whar  dey  don't  gib  ye  no  pelon  ; '  and 
the  boys  crossed  over  the  street,  and  transferred  their  custom 
to  the  other  store.  I  made  up  my  mind  to  find  out  what  pelon 
was.  The  night  was  dark,  and  no  one  could  see  me  :  so  I 
walked  across  the  street  after  the  boys,  and  listened  at  the 
door.  The  negroes  bought  a  box  of  sardines,  a  bottle  of  beer, 
and  some  other  household  remedies ;  and,  as  they  paid  for  what 
they  had  purchased,  one  of  them  said,  'pelon.'  The  proprietor 
of  the  store  took  down  a  glass  jar,  and  handed  each  one  of  the 
boys  a  stick  of  barber-pole  candy. 

" '  I  don't  want  none  ob  dat  ar  pelon :  gimme  a  couple  ob 
cigarettes.' 

"  '  Keno  ! '  I  ejaculated.  I  saw  through  the  whole  campaign 
•plan  of  the  enemy,  who  had  well  nigh  forced  me  to  capitulate. 
Pelon  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  any  little  trifle  thrown 
in,  —  a  kind  of  voluntary  commission  to  the  customer.  I  soon 
became  celebrated  for  my  pelon,  and  in  a  short  time  regained 
all  my  lost  custom.  Won't  you  have  a  cigar  ? " 

The  doctor  took  the  cigar  and  strolled  out,  enriched  with 
some  valuable  information  regarding  local  customs. 

The  \\ordpelon\s  a  corruption  of  the  Mexican  or  Spanish 
word  peloncillo,  a  small  cone  of  sugar.  It  is  used  in  Mexico 
instead  of  crushed  sugar.  The  Mexican  customer  is  in  the  habit 
of  demanding  and  receiving  a  piece  of  peloncillo  whenever  he 
buys  any  thing :  hence  the  term  pelon.  It  is  a  synonyme  of 
the  "  please-remember-the-waiter  "  of  the  English,  \hzpourboire 
and  trinkgeld  of  the  continent,  and  the  backsheesh  of  Asia. 
Upon  reflection  it  will  be  found  that  pelon  has  always  existed, 
and  will  ever  exist,  among  all  people.  It  is  the  axle-grease  on 
the  hub  of  trade.  If  it  were  not  for  pelon,  the  wheels  on  the 
car  of  commerce  would  creak  insufferably. 

Sunday  is  the  festal  day  in  San  Antonio.  The  saloons  are 
all  open,  and  the  variety  theatres  have  special  services.  The 
Germans  go  to  the  park  and  beer-gardens,  and  drink  beer. 
The  Mexicans  go  to  church  in  the  morning,  and  spend  the 
remainder  of  the  day  at  monte  or  in  the  cockpit ;  while  the 
Americans  who  are  not  sick  in  bed,  or  riding  around  town  in 
buggies,  go  fishing.  Whenever  you  see  two  young  men  and  a 


SUNDAY  IN  SAN  ANTONIO. 


349 


dozen  fishing-poles  in  an  ambulance  standing  at  the  door  of  a 
grocery,  while  the  grocer's  man  is  packing  the  rear  end  of  the 
vehicle  with  soda-crackers,  demijohns,  sardines,  and  beer-bot- 
tles, you  know  that  to-morrow  will  be  Sunday.  At  least,  that 
is  what  a  newspaper  man,  whose  acquaintance  we  made  at  the 


TO  MORROW    WILL    BE    SUNDAY. 


San  Pedro  Park,  told  us.  Among  other  things  relating  to  the 
observance  of  the  sabbath  that  he  told  us,  was  the  follow- 
ing. 

He  said,  "  I  once  wrote  a  local  item  in  the  '  Herald.'      It 
read  like  this  :  — 


350  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

" '  From  the  fact  that  a  number  of  ambulances  loaded  down  with  demi- 
johns and  fishing-poles  were  seen  passing  out  of  town  this  afternoon,  in 
the  direction  of  the  fishing-hole  on  the  Leona,  we  feel  almost  certain  that  to- 
morrow will  be  the  Lord's  Day.  We  wish  to  state,  for  the  information  of 
the  guilty  parties  who  desecrate  the  sabbath,  that  hereafter  we  will  publish 
a  list  of  all  Sunday  fishermen  who  fail  to  send  us  a  fair  share  of  the  fish. 
We  wish  it,  moreover,  to  be  distinctly  understood,  that  small  perch  and  cat- 
fish will  not  satisfy  us.  We  insist  on  trout.  There  are  too  many  bones  in 
perch  and  catfish  to  justify  us  in  failing  to  do  our  whole  duty  in  exposing 
those  who  defy  alike  the  laws  of  God  and  man.  Remember  the  sabbath-day 
to  keep  it  holy.' 

"This  went  the  rounds  of  the  American  press,  and  was,  of 
course,  regarded  as  a  joke.  But  the  editor  of  the  'Garten 
Laube/  a  German  monthly  magazine,  saw  the  squib,  interpreted 
it  literally,  took  it  for  a  text,  and  wrote  a  long  article  on 
'Pttritanishe  Intoleranz?  The  article  affirmed,  that  while  the 
celebrated  Blue  Laws  were  enforced  rigidly  only  in  the  New- 
England  States,  yet  the  spirit  of  Puritan  intolerance  extended 
over  the  whole  country,  even  as  far  south  as  the  borders  of 
Mexico ;  that  while  men  and  women  were  not  actually  tortured 
for  violating  the  Blue  Laws  in  the  South,  yet  the  baleful  effects 
of  these  laws  could  be  seen  cropping  out  in  the  every-day  life 
of  the  people.  Here  was  some  narrow-minded  bigot  (meaning 
me)  who  openly  threatened  to  expose  to  public  scorn  and  con- 
sequent ostracism  those  who  had  shaken  off  the  shackles  of 
superstition,  and  had  the  boldness  to  follow  the  dictates  of 
their  own  consciences  in  going  fishing  on  Sunday.  '  From  the 
reference  to  demijohns,  we  infer,'  continues  the  'Garten  Laube,' 
'that  the  denounced  and  execrated  fishermen  are  not  miserable 
temperanzlers  or  besotted  watersimples,  but  believe  in  using 
the  foaming  goblet.  We  would  like  to  call  attention,  not  only 
to  the  intolerance  of  Puritanism,  but  to  its  utter  hollowness,  its 
rank  hypocrisy.  This  puritanical  water-fanatic,  while  denoun- 
cing the  wickedness  of  fishing  on  Sunday,  openly  attempts  to 
levy  blackmail,  and  demands  a  portion  of  the  fish.  He  even 
goes  to  the  extreme  limit  of  impudence,  when  he  states  that 
none  but  the  most  desirable,  those  with  the  fewest  bones,  will 
prevent  him  from  holding  his  victims  up  to  be  sacrificed  by  the 
mob  on  the  altar  of  puritanic  intolerance.' 


A    CONSCIENTIOUS  SALOON-KEEPER. 


351 


"Now,  you  may  think  I  am  joking ;  but,  if  you  will  look  over 
the  'Garten  Laube '  for  the  year  1875,  you  will  find  the  article 
referred  to." 

At  San  Antonio  there  is  a  saloon-keeper  who  is  very  con- 
scientious in  the  observance  of  our  Christian  sabbath.  One 
Sunday  morning  two  exquisitely  dressed  young  gentlemen, 


"YOU    CAN'T    DESECRATE    THE   SABBATH    WITH    MY    DICE." 

with  small  canes,  and  with  rosebuds  in  their  coat -lapels, 
dropped  into  this  man's  saloon,  en  route  to  church.  They 
called  for  liquid  refreshments,  possibly  in  anticipation  of  a  dry 
sermon  ;  and  in  a  few  minutes,  like  "  drowning  men,"  they  were 
"grasping  at  straws."  Presently  one  of  them  said,  "Gimme 
the  dice  :  I  want  to  shake." 

But  the  barkeeper  sighed,  and  said,  "You  can't  desecrate 


352 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


the  sabbath  with  my  dice  as  long  as  I  know  what  religion 
is," 

"Why,  ole  fel,"  responded  one  of  the  youths,  "I  only  want 
to  shake  with  Tom  to  see  who  will  have  to  furnish  the  quarter 
when  the  plate  is  being  passed  around." 

"  That's  a  horse  of  another  color,"  was  the  mollified  reply,  as 

the  dice  was  produced. 
"  I  thought  you  wanted 
to  gamble  on   Sunday ; 
j  and  I'll  be  blamed  if  you 

*>  can  come  that  on  me  as 

long  as  I  have  a  here- 
after to  go  to."  And  he 

stirred  up  something 
nice  for  himself,  as  he 
gently  whistled,  with 
one  eye  on  the  young 
men,  and  the  other  one 
on  his  slate,  "A  charge 
to  make  I  have." 

San  Antonio  has  more 
fence  and  dead-wall  ad- 
vertisements than  any 
city  of  its  size  in  the 
world  ;  and  they  are 
written  and  printed  and 
painted  in  several  lan- 
guages. Any  artist  who 
can  procure  a  few  pots 
of  red  and  blue  paint  is 
allowed  to  throw  as 

much  soul  as  he  pleases  into  the  patent-medicine  advertise- 
ments, and  other  works  of  art,  on  the  fences,  barns,  and  rocks. 
One  man  with  long  hair,  a  wild  light  in  his  eyes,  and  looking 
as  if  he  ought  to  be  run  through  a  washing-machine,  labors  like 
a  man  hoeing  corn  ;  and  in  a  few  hours  even  those  who  cannot 
read,  find  themselves  lifted  up  to  a  higher  and  purer  life  by 


SPRING 


LIVER-ENCOURAGER.  353 

the  legend,  "Try  Dr.  McFraud's  liver-encourager."  Next  day 
another  artist  posts  a  bill  for  a  strolling  revivalist  under  it ; 
so  that,  both  together,  they  read,  "Try  Dr.  McFraud's  liver- 
encourager." —  "Prepare  to  meet  thy  God." 

During  a  political  campaign,  the  war  proclamations  of  the 
rival  gladiators  may  be  seen  on  the  same  outhouse.  While  the 
candidates  may  thus  be  said  to  be  billing  together,  they  cannot 
be  said  to  be  cooing  together,  if  the  language  they  use  toward 
each  other  indicates  any  thing.  Information  where  to  buy  cab- 
bage-plants, and  the  best  place  to  procure  genuine  Havana 
cigars,  may  be  found  in  startling  proximity.  The  sale  of  sheep, 
and  a  call  for  a  political  meeting,  read  as  if  one  and  the  same 
document.  The  city  council  has  already  got  out  an  ordinance 
prohibiting  this.  Newspapers  are  the  proper  medium  for  ad- 
vertising ;  for,  after  the  public  has  read  the  advertisement,  the 
newspapers  can  be  used  to  cut  patterns  out  of,  and  to  wrap 
things  in,  which  is  more  than  can  be  done  with  a  ten-foot  plank 
fence  with  a  row  of  nails  on  top.  Who  ever  heard  of  anybody 
wrapping  a  piece  of  old  cheese  in  the  side  of  a  barn  ?  And  yet 
many  prefer  to  patronize  the  fence  and  the  side  of  the  barn  as 
an  advertising  medium,  instead  of  a  newspaper,  at  the  risk  of 
having  the  owner  of  the  property  come  out  and  feed  his  bull- 
dog on  the  artist  with  the  vigorous  arm,  and  the  wild,  poetic 
eye. 

23 


354 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

NE  morning  we  saw  an  intoxicated 
cowboy  riding  a  pony  at  full  speed 
down  Commerce  Street,  with  a 
policeman  on  horseback,  and 
about  a  dozen  dogs,  in  close  pur- 
suit. The  cowboy  was  yelling  in 
what  he  doubtless  considered  a 
sociable  and  good-humored 'way, 
but  which  was  evidently  against 
the  city  ordinances.  In  former 
times  it  used  to  be  very  fashion- 
able for  hardy  frontiersmen  to 
come  to  San  Antonio  to  amuse 
themselves.  The  recreation  sometimes  took  the  playful  turn 
of  riding  into  a  saloon  on  a  mustang,  and  engaging  in  target- 
practice  at  the  lamps,  the  barkeeper,  or  any  other  conspicuous 
object  that  happened  to  strike  the  eye  of  the  gay  and  festive 
rover  o'er  the  flower-bespangled  prairies.  Ordinarily,  however, 
the  searcher  for  relaxation  would  be  satisfied,  for  the  time 
being,  with  galloping  at  high  speed  through  the  streets,  and 
shooting  a  few  times  at  the  dogs  that  happened  to  be  within 
range.  Unless  an  officer  made  himself  obtrusive,  he  was  rarely 
interfered  with.  The  hilarious  cowboy  did  not  care  to  hunt 
the  officer  up,  and  the  officer  entertained  the  same  sentiments 
towards  the  reveller.  If  it  came  to  the  worst,  a  fine  of  a  few 
dollars  would  repair  the  damage  to  the  peace  and  dignity  of 
the  city. 


THE  HILARIOUS   COWBOY. 


355 


Times  have  changed  since 
then.  Now  if  a  young  man, 
who  may  never  have  visited 
San  Antonio  before,  under- 
takes to  shoot  at  the  lamps, 
or  indulges  in  any  eccentrici- 
ties of  that  character,  he  finds 
himself  very  much  bewildered. 
Instead  of  creating  admira- 
tion and  awe,  and  being  spo- 
ken of  as  a  candidate  for 
sheriff,  as  formerly,  he  im- 
mediately becomes  such  an 
object  of  pity  that  the  spec- 
tators feel  like  taking  up  a 
collection  for  him.  He  is 
pulled  off  his  horse  and 
thrown  down  on  the  pave- 
ment by  a  couple  of  police- 
men. His  pistol  is  ruthlessly  taken  away  from  him  ;  and,  while 


one  heavy  policeman  sits  on 
'his  stomach,  the  other  ex- 
plores his  pockets  for  more 
pistols.  Then  they  put  nip- 
pers on  him,  and  lead  him 
away  in  triumph  to  the  lock-* 
up,  without  stopping  to  scrape 
the  mud  off  his  person.  After 
he  has  spent  a  very  disagree- 
able night,  he  is  brought  be- 
fore the  recorder  to  answer  to 
the  following  high  crimes  and 
misdemeanors:  disturbing 
the  peace  and  quiet  of  the 
neighborhood,  carrying  con- 
cealed weapons,  furious  rid- 
ing, resisting  an  officer  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duty,  quarrel- 


356  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

ling  and  fighting,  obstructing  the  sidewalks,  and  such  other  of- 
fences as  he  may  have  perpetrated.  As  the  fine  in  each  case 
may  be  as  high  as  a  hundred  dollars,  the  reveller  is,  to  some 
extent,  at  the  mercy  of  the  recorder.  That  such  a  pastime  as 
"taking  the  town"  is  expensive  in  the  long-run,  needs  no  par- 
ticular elaboration  :  hence  it  comes,  that,  of  late  years,  San  An- 
tonio has  lost  many  of  her  best  customers.  They  take  their 
custom  to  some  other  town.  Once  in  a  great  while  an  old- 
fashioned  boy  from  the  cow  counties  reminds  the  city  people  of 
the  happy  days  gone  by. 

These  cowboys  do  not  come  to  town  more  than  once  or  twice 
in  a  year.  Some  of  them  come  distances  of  more  than  a  hun- 
dred miles  ;  and  when  they  get  to  town  they  are  determined  to 
"take  it  all  in."  Their  ignorance  of  city  ways  and  manners 
leads  to  many  ludicrous  mistakes. 

"  What  time  do  you  eat  dinner  here  ? "  inquired  a  frontiers- 
man of  the  clerk  of  the  Menger  Hotel. 

"  From  twelve  to  three." 

"  From  twelve  to  three ! "  whooped  the  astonished  cowboy. 
"  Take  you  three  hours  to  fill  up,  does  it  ?  And  they  talk  about 
it  being  unhealthy  in  town.  Well,  it  just  gets  me,  it  do  ! " 
And  then  he  went  into  the  dining-room,  and  loaded  steadily 
until  the  three  hours  were  up,  and  came  out  saying  that  he 
"felt  sort  o'  satisfied,  and  fixed  up  for  business." 

San  Antonio  is  famous  for  its  dogs  and  rats.  In  regard  to 
the  dogs,  it  can  be  said,  without  risk,  that  there  are  more  of 
these  movable  flea-ranches  in  San  Antonio  than  in  Constanti- 
nople, so  noted  for  its  dogs  ;  and  all  of  them  assist  at  open-air 
concerts,  and  carry  on  animated  joint  discussions,  every  night 
in  the  week.  The  unsuccessful  searcher  after  slumber  can 
hear  them  calling  each  other  liars,  and  impeaching  each  other's 
records,  all  night  long.  A  brief  history  of  the  San  Antonio 
dog  (there  are  two  kinds  of  them)  cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest 
to  those  who  are  so  fortunate  as  not  to  know  any  thing  of  them 
by  actual  experience.  The  first  dog  that  settled  in  San  An- 
tonio came  here  with  the  Spaniards,  and  is  that  bandy-legged 
absurdity  known  to  scientists  as  the  no-hair  dog.  Naturalists 
who  have  studied  the  animal  closely  do  not  all  agree  regarding 


DOGS. 


357 


him  ;  but  the  majority  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  animal  re- 
ceived this  name  from  the  fact,  that  with  the  exception  of  a 
blond  tuft  between  the  ears,  and  another  on  the  tip  of  the 
tail,  he  is  as  destitute  of  hair  as  the  inside  of  a  churn.  The 
Mexicans  call  him  the  pelon  dog.  I  believe  he  is  the  genuine 
Barbary.  His  hide  is  of  a  dark-purple  color ;  and,  when  he  is 
not  in  motion,  he  might  readily  be  taken  for  a  cast-iron  dog  if 
it  wer^e  not  for  the  tuft  of  hair  __  ^  _ 

on  his  tail.     The   naturalists 
tell  us  that  a  bunch  of  hair  '  i       i 

never  thrives  at  the  end  of  a 
cast-iron  dog's  tail. 

At  the  present  time  there 
are  not  so  many  pelon  dogs  in 
San  Antonio  as  there  used  to 
be.  Being  of  a  tropical  origin, 
they  suffer  greatly  during  the 
nortiiers  in  winter,  and  many 
of  them  die  from  exposure  to 
the  cold.  The  Mexican  women 
are  very  fond  of  these  dogs, 
and  take  great  care  of  them. 
As  the  Mexican  population 
decreases,  the  pelon  dog  also 
becomes  scarce.  He  is  always  fat,  probably  because,  owing  to 
his  hairless  condition,  he  is  not  scouted  over  by  detachments  of 
fleas,  as  is  the  case  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  dog,  whose  mind  is 
thus  kept  in  a  perpetually  perturbed  state. 

After  the  advent  of  the  American,  a  new  kind  of  dog,  that 
before  that  time  was  utterly  unknown  to  the  Mexicans,  put  in 
an  appearance.  Like  his  master,  he  had  come  to  stay.  He 
soon  created  a  yearning  for  solitude  on  the  part  of  the  Mexican 
dog.  Whenever  the  pelon  went  out  to  take  the  air,  this  new- 
comer made  his  acquaintance,  the  duration  of  which  depended 
on  the  hold  the  intruder  got. 

The  vast  number  of  dogs  that  infest  San  Antonio  was  the 
result  of  another  nuisance, — the  rat.  Up  to  the  year  1855 
rats  were  unknown.  In  that  year  the  citizens  undertook  to 


THE    NO-HAIR    DOG. 


358  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

establish  gas-works.  When  the  gas-pipes  arrived,  several  va- 
grant rats  jumped  out.  From  these  first  settlers  have  descended 
the  millions  of  rats  that  have  devastated  the  storerooms,  and 
still  continue  to  levy  prestamos  on  the  citizens,  in  spite  of  poi- 
son, traps,  dogs,  and  all  the  profanity  that  can  be  brought  to 
bear  on  them.  Many  of  the  buildings  are  of  soft  rock,  and 
the  rats  catacomb  the  walls  in  every  direction.  Where  there 
was  a  single  rat  in  1855,  there  were  a  dozen  married  ones»  with 
large  families,  in  1856;  and  they  have  multiplied  in  increased 
ratio  ever  since.  Every  attempt  to  reduce  their  numbers 
failed.  Those  who  placed  their  hopes  in  traps  found  them 
a  snare  and  a  delusion.  The  rats  seemed  to  grow  fat  on  poi- 
son. Finally  some  wise  man,  whose  name  posterity  fails  to 
record,  suggested  terriers.  The  whole  population  became  in- 
fected with  the  rat-terrier  fever.  Heads  of  families  sold  their 
only  pair  of  derringers  to  enable  them  to  buy  terriers.  While 
the  excitement  was  raging,  the  pawnbroker  did  a  lively  busi- 
ness. It  was  the  popular  delusion  that  a  terrier  could  follow  a 
rat  into  a  hole  no  larger  than  a  half-dollar.  This  was  not  the 
terrier's  understanding  of  it.  He  expected  the  rat  to  be  caught 
in  a  trap,  and  then  placed  in  an  arena  built  for  the  purpose. 
Most  families  found  this  too  expensive,  and  in  a  very  short 
time  almost  everybody  had  terriers  to  sell.  The  pawnbrokers, 
for  some  inexplicable  reason,  refused  to  advance  on  terriers. 
They  would  not  take  them  at  the  most  extravagant  discount. 
The  terriers  have  multiplied  almost  as  rapidly  as  the  rats ; 
and  when,  on  the  streets  of  San  Antonio,  you  are  not  look- 
ing at  a  rat,  you  are  sure  to  have  a  crop-eared  terrier  in  sight. 
The  rats  sometimes  die,  but  it  cannot  be  properly  said  of 
them  that  they  pass  away.  The  old  time-honored  custom  of 
depositing  the  remains  of  rats  that  have  come  to  a  violent  end, 
in  the  street,  is  still  kept  up  with  a  great  deal  of-  superfluous 
persistence  by  many  of  the  citizens.  By  objecting  to  dead 
rats  being  thrown  into  the  street,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  under- 
stood as  advocating  that  they  should  be  left  on  the  pavement, 
or  filed  away  for  future  reference  in  the  irrigating  ditches.  I 
do  not  even  urge  upon  the  owners  of  the  defunct  rodents,  that 
they  be  flung  over  the  fence  into  the  neighboring  yard,  where 


RATS.  359 

* 

they  are  sometimes  left  to  generate  a  bad  odor  and  newspaper 
comments.  Nor  is  it  sympathy  for  the  rats  that  instigates  me 
to  refer  to  this  nuisance.  It  does  not  hurt  a  dead  rat  in  the 
least  to  be  run  over  by  a  loaded  dray.  There  are  other  rea- 
sons, but  there  is  no  positive  necessity  for  elaborating  them. 

In  1855,  when  there  were  comparatively  few  Americans  in 
the  city,  an  old  Mexican  shoemaker,  named  Pancho  Hernan- 
dez, had  a  shop  on  the  Military  Plaza.  He  had  a  young  and 
rather  good-looking  wife.  Pancho  was  a  man  of  considerable 
influence,  and  was  quite  a  favorite  with  the  Americans,  particu- 
larly those  who  ran  for  office.  He  spent  much  of  his  time  with 
the  Americans,  and  soon  became  so  saturated  with  American 
civilization  that  he  preferred  whiskey  to  the  vile  mezcal  on  which 
his  ancestors  for  hundreds  of  years  had  relied  for  inspiration. 
He  even  acquired  a  fondness  for  American  food ;  and  one  day 
he  actually  brought  home  a  large  canvas-covered  ham,  much  to 
the  disgust  of  his  wife,  who  exclaimed,  — 

"  Ah,  Panco  !  those  dogs  of  gringoes  will  be  the  death  of 
you  yet.  You  no  longer  find  any  pleasure  in  the  juicy  tamale 
of  your  ancestors.  You  no  longer  observe  the  sabbath-day  to 
keep  it  holy  by  attending  the  service  at  the  cockpit  like  a  good 
Christian  ;  but  you  are  off  every  Sunday  with  your  American 
friends,  playing  billiards.  And  now  you  bring  home  that  vile 
ham.  I  wish  the  Devil  had  it,  and  all  the  Americans  in  the  town." 

"  Excepting  that  tall  one,  with  light  hair,  who  never  comes 
here  except  when  I  am  away,"  observed  Pancho,  as  he  hung  up 
the  despised  ham  on  a  nail  in  the  adobe  wall.  As  Mrs.  Her- 
nandez refused  to  cook  the  ham,  it  hung  on  the  wall  for  several 
weeks.  One  day,  while  Pancho  was  absent  electioneering,  the 
red-headed  American  to  whom  Pancho  had  alluded  came  in. 
He  said  he  wanted  to  see  Pancho ;  but,  he  not  being  present, 
Mrs.  Pancho  seemed  to  answer  the  purpose  just  as  well.  In 
his  eagerness  to  have  her  understand  precisely  what  he  wanted, 
he  had  inadvertently  placed  his  arms  around  her  neck,  and  had 
his  mouth  very  close  to  her  mouth,  when  she  happened  to 
notice  the  ham  on  the  wall.  Valgeme  Dios !  It  moved,  it 
flopped  about.  The  poor  woman  believed  the  Devil  was  in  the 
ham,  and  had  come  to  carry  her  away.  She  emitted  a  yell  that 


360  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

made  the  inhabitants  away  out  in  the  suburbs  suppose  that 
Indians  were  attacking  the  town.  The  auburn-haired  Ameri- 
can went  out  through  the  window  like  a  streak.  Mrs.  Pancho 
resolved  to  lead  a  new  life,  and  to  keep  her  eye  on  that  ham. 

That  very  same  day  Pancho,  who  had  been  assisting  in  con- 
solidating the  Mexican  vote,  his  wife  being  at  church,  was 
scared  into  comparative  sobriety  by  seeing  the  ham  wriggle. 
He  rubbed  his  eyes,  and  saw  it  wriggle  again.  The  diabolo 
was  in  the  ham  on  the  wall  on  account  of  the  sins  he,  Pancho, 
had  committed  during  the  heat  of  the  campaign  :  so  Pancho 
strolled  out  hurriedly,  with  a  howl  on  his  lips,  in  search  of  a 
priest.  Father  Thomas  Aquinas,  a  newly  arrived  prelate  from 
the  south  of  Ireland,  was  a  very  devout  young  man  ;  but  when 
Pancho  begged  him  to  come  —  with  bell,  book,  and  candle  — 
to  drive  the  Devil  out  of  the  ham,  he  smiled  so  audibly  that  he 
interrupted  an  auctioneer's  flow  of  eloquence  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  plaza.  When  he  got  to  Pancho's  house,  and  saw 
that  fine  ham  hanging  on  the  wall,  there  was  moisture  in  the 
corners  of  his  mouth.  He  said  he  would  have  to  take  the  ham 
to  his  room,  where  he  had  all  the  facilities  for  expelling  the 
evil  spirit.  He  was  reaching  out  to  remove  it  from  the  nail  on 
the  wall,  when  he  recoiled  with  an  ejaculation  of  horror,  for 
the  ham  kicked  at  him. 

"I  forgot  entirely  we  were  in  Lent,  and  forbidden  to  ate 
mate,"  muttered  the  conscience-stricken  priest,  as  he  crossed 
himself,  and  started  at  a  dog-trot  for  the  nearest  church. 

The  shoemaker's  shop  was  empty.  A  black,  woolly  head 
was  inserted  through  the  door,  and  Sam  Johnsing,  a  reliable 
colored  man,  stealthily  entered.  He  advanced  towards  the 
ham,  and  was  just  about  to  sequestrate  it,  when  he  saw  it  move. 
He  intimated  that  the  Devil  was  in  the  ham,  and  he  sauntered 
out  as  slowly  as  if  fired  out  of  a  gun. 

The  excitement  among  the  Mexican  population  was  intense. 
A  large  mob  collected  around  the  building;  but  nobody  could 
be  induced  to  enter,  until,  a  Texas  ranger  having  put  several 
bullets  through  the  ham,  another  reckless  American  pushed  it 
off  the  nail  with  a  long  pole,  and  then  the  rat  was  out  of  the 
bag.  In  the  soft  adobe  wall  where  the  ham  had  been  was  a 


A   MEXICAN  MENDICANT.  361 

hole  the  size  of  a  man's  wrist,  which  was  invisible  as  long  as 
the  ham  was  hanging  on  the  wall.  There  was  no  ham  at  all  in 
the  yellow  canvas  cover.  There  was  nothing  inside  of  the 
cover  of  the  ham  except  the  bone.  The  intelligent  rats  had 
performed  the  remarkable  engineering  feat  of  making  a  tunnel 
inside  of  the  adobe  wall,  it  coming  out  behind  the  ham.  They 
had  then  eaten  a  hole  into  the  ham,  climbed  into  it,  and  eaten 
it  all  up,  except  the  outside  cover,  which  preserved  the  plump, 
outside  appearance  of  the  ham,  while  inside  it  was  as  hollow 
and  deceptive  as  the  piety  of  Pancho,  his  wife,  the  red-headed 
American,  the  priest,  and  Sam  Johnsing. 

Pancho  had  frequently  noticed  a  large  rat  that  several  times 
ran  out  into  the  middle  of  the  floor,  looked  up  at  the  ham  as  if 
he  was  taking  measurements  and  bearings  of  the  exact  position 
of  the  ham  on  the  wall,  and  then  ran  back  into  his  hole.  That 
the  rats  should  be  able  to  hit  the  exact  spot  on  the  wall  where 
the  ham  was  hung  shows,  that,  as  far  as  intelligence  goes,  they 
were  probably  ahead  of  Pancho,  his  wife,  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
crowd :  anyhow,  the  rats  were  no  doubt  quite  as  moral,  which 
is  the  moral  of  this  entertaining  little  fable. 

Those  who  have  never  seen  a  Mexican  mendicant,  and  who 
never  expect  to  see  one,  are  to  be  envied ;  and,  when  it  comes 
to  a  deformed  specimen,  it  will  turn  out  to  be  a  paying  invest- 
ment to  hire  a  special  train,  and  go  away  somewhere  to  avoid 
seeing  one,  so  repulsive  is  the  sight.  I  met  one  of  these 
beggars  on  the  main  plaza.  He  was  mounted  on  a  small  and 
doleful  donkey.  It  was  the  nearest  approach  to  a  beggar  on 
horseback  that  I  ever  saw.  A  mendicant,  when  he  desires  to 
excite  sympathy,  usually  relies  on  his  extremities.  This  one 
literally  relied  on  all  of  his  extremities,  which  were  twisted  in 
a  most  startling  manner ;  *but  you  could  not  give  them  the 
attention  they  deserved,  as  his  face,  and  particularly  his  nose, 
had  superior  claims.  Parts  of  his  hands,  feet,  and  nose,  were 
gone ;  and  the  small-pox  had  very  much  damaged  the  rest  of 
him.  Reining  up  his  donkey  in  front  of  me,  he  made  a  short 
speech  on  finance,  concluding  with  some  reference  to  internal 
affairs  ;  and  then  he  held  out  a  small  piece  of  his  hand,  which 
was  very  much  twisted,  and  resembled  in  shape  the  new  map  of 


362 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


Turkey.  He  was  going  to  show  me  a  wound  on  his  back,  but 
I  thought  that  would  be  asking  too  much  of  a  stranger.  I  de- 
posited a  dime  on  the  Turkish  frontier.  He  was  so  filled  with 


THE    MEXICAN    MENDICANT. 


gratitude  that  he  was  about  to  unwind  some  bandages ;  but  I 
was  afraid  of  losing  my  appetite,  — the  only  one  I  had,  —  so  we 
parted,  the  rider  giving  me  an  unconditional  present  of  his 
blessing,  as  I  passed  down  the  narrow  street. 


THE  JUDGE.  363 

An  old  gentleman  sat  near  me  in  the  courtyard  of  the  Men- 
ger  Hotel.  He  was  carving  the  arm  of  his  chair  with  a  pocket- 
knife.  Looking  up,  he  asked  me  if  I  had  been  in  the  country 
any  length  of  time.  I  knew  what  he  was  trying  to  work  up 
to  :  he  was  going  to  ask  me  if  I  had  been  to  the  missions  yet. 
I  said  I  had  only  been  in  the  country  long  enough  to  see  all  the 
missions,  and  a  few  other  historic  spots,  including  the  battle- 
field of  San  Jacinto. 

"  I  came  to  San  Antonio  with  the  cholera." 

"  Did  you  have  it  bad,  Judge  ? " 

The  judge  stopped  sculpturing  the  chair,  and  explained,  — 

"  I  did  not  have  the  cholera  when  I  came  here :  but  I  came 
with  the  cholera ;  that  is,  I  came  here  the  same  year  the  cholera 
came." 

To  encourage  him,  I  said,  "I  have  heard  that  it  was  so 
healthy  in  San  Antonio  that  people  who  wanted  to  die  had  to 
leave  the  city,  and  that  the  air  was  so  dry  and  pure  that  old 
people  dried  up,  and  blew  away." 

"That  statement  is  a  lie,  sir,  gotten  up  by  some  Yankee 
scribbler  to  injure  our  State.  I  can  show  you  an  old  man  who 
never  dries  up,  but  keeps  on  talking  and  gassing  all  day  long. 
Besides,  if  a  man  dries  up,  how  can  he  keep  on  blowing  away  ? 
I  would  like  to  talk  to  the  man  who  got  up  that  lie  on  the 
people." 

"  What  year  was  it,  Judge,  that  you  said  the  cholera  came  to 
San  Antonio  ? " 

"The  same  year  Ben  Milam's  remains  were  taken  up,  and 
buried  on  the  other  side  of  the  San  Pedro." 

If  at  first  you  don't  succeed,  try,  try  again.  "Judge,  what 
year  was  it  you  said  Milam  died  with  the  cholera  ? " 

The  judge  got  angry,  and  sculptured  the  chair  with  increased 
ferocity  and  the  large  blade  of  his  pocket-knife.  After  a  pause, 
he  said,  — 

"  I'd  like  to  know  who  said  that  Milam  died  of  the  cholera  ? 
He  didn't  die  of  the  cholera,  but  fell,  fighting  the  Mexicans." 

The  judge  got  up,  and  looked  as  if  he  wanted  to  fight.  Tak- 
ing me  by  the  arm,  he  said  he  wanted  to  speak  to  me  privately. 
I  was  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land,  —  very  strange,  —  and  there 


364  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

was  no  policeman  near.  He  led  me  away  in  the  direction  of  a 
beer-saloon.  "Thank  Heaven!"  said  I  to  myself,  "I'll  find  a 
policeman  there!  The  judge  said  he  meant  business.  I  did 
not  come  to  San  Antonio  for  business :  I  came  to  enjoy  myself." 
Then  I  began  to  wonder  if  it  would  be  of  any  use  to  apologize. 
What  would  be  the  verdict  of  the  coroner  ?  Would  the  North- 
ern papers  call  it  "  another  Southern  outrage "  ?  and  would 
the  judge  be  acquitted, — temporary  insanity,  or  absence  of 
witnesses  ? 

"Let  me  call  your  attention  to  this,"  said  the  judge  ;  and  he 
pulled  a  pistol  out  of  his  pocket.  I  was  about  to  make  a  dash 
for  liberty,  when  he  took  from  the  same  pocket  a  bundle  of 
cards,  and  placed  the  pistol  back  again  in  his  pocket.  "  Read 
that  card,  and  you  will  see  that  I  am  a  candidate  for  coroner 
before  the  people's  meeting  to-night :  my  friends  are  trying  to 
bring  me  out,  and  I  have  yielded." 

"But  I  cannot  help  you,  Judge,  as  I  have  not  got  a  vote 
here." 

"  I  know  it,  Colonel ;  but  you  can  help  me.  Just  mix  in  the 
crowd.  Hurrah  for  Judge  Bangs  whenever  you  get  a  chance  ; 
and,  if  any  one  says  any  thing  about  my  war  record,  call  him  a 
liar.  When  I'm  elected  coroner,  maybe  I'll  be  able  to  do  some- 
thing for  you.  What  will  you  take  ?  " 

I  took  the  judge  by  the  hand,  and  told  him  that  I  would  be 
glad  to  do  what  I  could  for  him,  and  then  I  made  my  escape. 

We  attended  a  grand  concert  that  took  place  on  Saturday 
evening  in  Turner  Hall.  The  performance  was  by  amateurs. 
I  cannot  say  I  relished  the  first  piece  much  :  it  was  an  over- 
ture by  a  brass  band.  A  brass  band  is  too  eloquent  in  a  hall, 
particularly  when  aided  and  abetted  by  a  large  drum.  Before 
the  overture  was  over,  the  audience,  with  the  exception  of  one 
man,  who  was  blessed  with  partial  deafness,  were  willing  to 
make  overtures  to  the  Legislature  to  double  the  tax  on  drum- 
mers. A  solo  ("  Swabean  Maiden  ")  was  beautifully  rendered 
by  Miss  Maria  Lacoste,  who  possesses  a  wonderfully  pure  alto 
voice.  A  chorus  by  the  Beethoven  Maennerchor  came  next. 

During  the  pauses  between  the  pieces  I  amused  myself  by 
studying  the  drop-curtain,  on  which  was  a  very  good  painting 


A    GRAND    CONCERT. 


365 


of  the  celebrated  castle  of  Miramar,  where  the  unfortunate 
Carlotta  was  confined.  The  castle  was  very  good  ;  but  the 
firmament  above,  in  consequence  of  its  having  been  rolled  up 
as  a  scroll,  looked  as  if  there  was  soon  going  to  be  a  storm. 
There  were,  however,  two  young  men  near  me,  who  assisted  in 


WHICH    OF    'EM    IS    BEETHOVEN  p 


keeping  me  in  good  humor.  They  were  friends.  One  was 
from  the  country,  while  the  other  had  been  a  resident  of  the 
city  for  some  months.  When  the  Beethovens  were  singing, 
the  happy  peasant  from  the  rural  districts,  who  had  been 
studying  the  printed  programme,  inquired  amiably,  — 
"  Which  of  'em  is  Beethoven  ? " 


366  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  I  don't  know,"  responded  the  other. 

"  Isn't  that  man  at  the  end  Beethoven  ? " 

"No:  that's  the  editor  of  the  'Freie  Presse.'  Maybe  the 
man  next  to  him  is." 

"  Why,  you  ought  to  know  him  !  You  have  lived  here  long 
enough." 

"  I  would  know  him  if  I  was  to  see  him  ;  but  I  don't  think 
he's  up  there,  anyhow." 

The  person  from  the  country  then  turned  around  to  me,  and 
asked  me  which  was  Beethoven.  I  pointed  out  a  man  who  I 
afterwards  learned  was  Col.  Haefflin,  a  public-spirited  butcher, 
who  looks  very  like  Beethoven  at  a  distance.  I  may  mention, 
that,  the  greater  the  distance,  the  more  striking  the  resem- 
blance. Anyhow,  the  young  man  was  satisfied.  I  was  going 
to  point  out  Mozart,  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  Julius  Caesar,  and 
some  of  the  local  members  of  the  press,  when  the  firmament 
was  again  rolled  up,  and  Mr.  Charles  H.  Mueller,  said  to  be 
the  best  tenor  in  town,  came  forward.  The  tenor  of  his  solo 
was  "  Klockengeleute,"  which  means,  in  English,  "Chimes." 
Mr.  Mueller  sang  with  much  feeling.  The  peasant  said  to  his 
friend,  "  Let's  take  a  stroll."  They  only  took  a  short  stroll. 
When  they  came  back  you  could  almost  feel  the  beer  in  the 
air.  I  fell  into  a  revery  while  studying  a  painting  on  the  wall 
to  the  right  of  the  stage.  It  represented  a  young  man  in  flow- 
ing robes.  From  the  fact,  that,  except  the  flowing  robes,  the 
figure  did  not  seem  to  have  many  clothes,  I  thought  perhaps  it 
was  a  representation  of  the  press.  The  figure  was  holding  on 
to  a  lyre  with  both  hands,  —  cumulative  evidence  that  the  gen- 
ius of  the  press  was  meant ;  and,  when  I  turned  to  look  at  the 
figure,  behold !  its  legs  were  gone.  There  was  a  square  open- 
ing where  the  legs  used  to  be. 

Just  then  the  performers  came  through  the  opening ;  and, 
when  the  door  was  closed,  there  were  the  legs  back  again 
where  they  ought  to  be.  It  is  a  solemn  fact,  that  the  legs 
are  painted  on  the  door.  When  the  door  is  a  little  ajar,  the 
supposed  reporter  looks  as  if  he  were  hurrying  home  from  a 
Fourth-of-July  procession,  rather  tangled  up. 

I  believe  the  singing  was  good  :  I  do  not  know.     I  did  not 


THE  POORHOUSE.  — PROGRESS.  367 

understand  it.  A  good  deal  of  the  singing  was  of  the  sky- 
rocket style,  and  I  do  not  like  that  kind.  The  doctor  asked 
me  if  I  understood  the  chorus  that  I  applauded  so  much.  I 
told  him  the  old  anecdote  about  Bridget  and  the  sermon. 
"What  an  illigant  sermon  Father  O'Doud  preached  this  morn- 
ing !  "  —  "  Did  you  understand  it,  Bridget  ? "  asked  her  em- 
ployer. "  Faith,  sur,  wud  I  have  the  assurance  ?  " 

We  visited  the  county  poorhouse.  It  is  near  the  water- 
works, about  two  miles  from  town.  The  rooms  are  very  neat 
and  clean,  and  the  institution  is  well  managed.  It  is  more, 
however,  in  the  nature  of  an  insane-asylum  than  a  poorhouse, 
there  being  no  less  than  fourteen  idiots  there  when  we  visited 
the  institution,  —  being  two  more  than  it  takes  to  try  a  man  for 
murder.  The  lunatics  make  themselves  useful.  Some  of  them 
were  cutting  wood  when  we  saw  them.  I  tried  to  cut  wood 
once ;  but  I  was  not  very  successful,  and  the  axe  got  caught  in 
the  clothes-line.  Ever  since  I  want  no  better  evidence  of  a 
man's  insanity  than  to  see  him  cutting  wood. 

In  San  Antonio  progress  is  visible  on  every  hand.  In  the 
houses,  the  streets,  the  people,  the  amusements,  and  the  reli- 
gious observances,  the  old  is  to  be  seen  gradually  merging  into 
the  new.  In  1849  tne  city  could  only  boast  of  two  policemen  : 
now  they  are  to  be  seen  in  every  saloon.  Thirty  years  ago 
San  Antonio  was  a  Mexican  city.  All  the  goods  that  were 
sold  in  San  Antonio  were  hauled  up  from  the  coast  on  uncouth 
vehicles  called  carretas.  The  two  wheels  of  these  carts  were 
made  of  wood,  solid,  and  without  spokes.  Some  of  them  had 
not  a  nail  or  a  piece  of  metal  in  them  ;  and,  when  the  thing 
was  in  motion,  the  creaking  of  the  wheels  made  the  roar  of  a 
hand-organ,  or  the  tintinnabulations  of  a  boiler-foundry,  seem 
melodious  lullabies.  The  oxen,  instead  of  being  reminded  of 
their  obligations  with  a  whip,  were  persuaded  with  a  spike  at 
the  end  of  a  long  pole.  Gradually  the  loud,  explosive  whip, 
and  the  hearty  expletive  of  the  American,  have  taken  the  place 
of  the  stiletto-like  goad  of  the  descendant  of  Cortez  and  Monte- 
zuma ;  and  now  old-fashioned  Mexican  carts,  with  wooden 
wheels,  are  comparatively  scarce. 


368 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 


r~1IIC 

• 

I       : 

;  -  ^^aar/  XCEPT    driv- 
i  n  g  freight- 
wagons,    the 
only   real, 
steady,  ac- 
tive work  the 
Mexicans 
ever  allowed 
themselves 
to  be  caught 
at,  was  cele- 
brating the  saints'  days.    The  celebration  was  decidedly  unique. 
After  devoutly  attending  church,  the  fast  young  men  would 
mount  their  ponies,  and  spend  the  rest  of  the  day  in  galloping 
through  the  streets,  and  uttering  a  succession  of  shrieks,  while 
the  profanum  vulgus,  who  did  not  own  horses,  stood  on  the 
corners  and  cheered. 

Having  much  curiosity  to  know  how  it  was  that  the  saints' 
clays  came  to  be  celebrated  in  this  demonstrative  manner,  I 
made  frequent  inquiry,  but,  for  a  long  time,  could  get  no  clew 
to  the  mystery.  The  only  explanation  I  ever  got  was,  that 
such  had  always  been  the  custom.  An  old  but  otherwise  reli- 
able inhabitant  told  me  that  he  was  one  of  the  first  Americans 
who  visited  San  Antonio,  and  that,  when  he  came,  there  was 


A  DEVICE    OF  THE  EARLY  MISSIONARIES.     369 

an  oil  painting  over  the  altar  of  the  old  church.  The  painting 
represented  St.  Anthony,  dressed  and  painted  like  a  Comanche 
chief,  mounted  on  a  pony,  a  halo  about  his  head,  armed  with  a 
bow  and  arrows,  and  pursuing  a  buffalo  over  the  prairie.  This 
was  probably  a  device  of  the  early  missionaries,  who  thus 
sought  to  insidiously  instil  Christian  principles  into  the  In- 
dian after  the  manner  of  the  missionaries  in  China,  who  repre- 
sented the  Saviour  of  mankind  in  the  guise  of  a  Mandarin. 
The  Indians,  supposing  St.  Anthony  to  be  a  bona  fide  Coman- 


FROM    OIL    PAINTING    OF    ST     ANTHONY    IN    SAN    ANTONIO    CHURCH. 

che,  and  a  major-general  among  the  saints,  celebrated  the  day 
set  apart  in  his  honor,  and  eventually  all  the  saints'  days,  by 
riding  through  the  streets  at  the  same  break-neck  speed  that 
St.  Anthony  seemed  to  enjoy  in  the  oil  painting. 

Of  late  years  the  wild  riding  has  entirely  disappeared ;  owing 
to  the  enactment  of  a  city  ordinance,  that  placed  it  under  the 
head  of  disorderly  conduct,  with  an  appropriate  fine.  Now  the 
Mexicans  have  reformed  entirely,  and  spend  saints'  days  and 
sabbath  evenings  like  Christian  gentlemen,  in  the  back-rooms 
of  the  saloons. 
24 


370  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

It  was  only  by  slow  degrees  Bthat  the  religious  custom  of 
celebrating  the  saints'  days  by  vociferous  equestrianism  died 
out.  No  serious  objection  was  raised  at  first  by  the- American 
population  of  San  Antonio  to  this  primitive  form  of  Christianity 
practised  by  the  natives.  The  Americans  are  proverbially  tol- 
erant in  religious  matters,  and  in  this  case  their  numerical 
inferiority  would  have  made  it  decidedly  unhealthy  for  them 
to  be  otherwise.  There  was,  of  course,  no  wide-spread  re- 
joicing among  the  Americans  at  having  their  slumbers  broken 
into  every  fifteen  minutes,  three  nights  out  of  four,  by  the 
clatter  of  horses'  hoofs,  and  the  demoniacal  yells  of  the  drunken 
Mexicans.  The  Americans  said  among  themselves,  "  This  is 
their  mode  of  worshipping  God,  and  it  would  be  unjust  in  us 
to  interfere  until  we  have  a  majority  in  the  city  council.  Let 
us  be  tolerant,  and  respect  their  sincerity,  until  we  have  the 
drop  on  them." 

What  gave  vitality  and  length  of  days  to  this  peculiar  form 
of  worship  was  the  fact,  that,  during  election-times,  candidates 
in  pursuit  of  the  Mexican  vote  would  join  in  the  procession  ; 
and  nothing  was  more  common  than  to  see  the  prospective 
county  officers  —  genuine  Caucasians,  with  red  heads,  and 
noses  to  match  —  splashing  through  the  mud,  leading  a  herd 
of  tatterdemalions,  and  yelling,  "  Hurrah  for  Our  Lady  of 
Gaudaloupe ! "  or  whoever  the  saint  of  the  day  might  be. 

Gradually,  however,  the  primitive  simplicity  of  this  mode  of 
worship  became  corrupted.  Abuses  crept  in.  The  Mexican 
was.  satisfied  with  riding  over  dogs  during  the  day,  and  keep- 
ing quiet  citizens  awake  during  the  night.  But  soon  part  of 
the  American  ritual  was  grafted  on  their  original  form  of  wor- 
ship, such  as  riding  into  bar-rooms,  shooting  out  the  lights,  and 
perforating  the  barkeeper.  At  last  people  devoid  of  religious 
convictions  began  to  shake  their  heads ;  and  when  finally  a 
stranger  named  McGinnis,  while  celebrating  St.  Patrick's  Day, 
shot  and  seriously  wounded  a  popular  saloon-keeper,  a  justice 
of  the  peace,  at  the  risk  of  losing  the  Mexican  vote,  had  McGin- 
nis arrested.  The  saloon-keeper  subsequently  dying  from  his 
injuries,  the  unfortunate  Celt,  who  thought  he  was  making  him- 
self popular  by  pandering  to  the  customs  of  the  country,  was 


"NO  SHOOTING  ALOUD." 


371 


made  to  feel  the  majesty  of  the  law.  He  was  fined  for  dis- 
charging fire-arms  within  the  city  limits.  Such  was  society 
in  its  primitive  form.  Civilization  has  continued  its  onward 
march,  until,  at  the  present  time,  the  man  who,  in  Texas,  im- 
brues his  hands  in  the  blood  of  his  fellow-man  is  no  longer 
punished  by  the  mockery  of  a  fine,  but  is  made  to  feel  the 


'HURRAH    FOR    OUR    LADY    OF    GUADALOUPE!" 


magnitude  of  his  crime  by  being  turned  out  into  the  cold,  un- 
feeling world,  branded  with  the  stigma  of  insanity. 

It  was  a  long  time  before  the  people  could  be  broken  of  the 
habit  of  shooting  at  signs  that  hung  across  the  street.  The 
old  citizens  of  San  Antonio  remember  the  fusillade  that  used 
to  rage  with  intense  fury  all  day  long,  on  such  days  as  Christ- 


372 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG, 


mas  and  New-Year's  Day.  The  first  attempt  to  check  the 
practice  was  in  1849.  A  notice  was  hung  up  over  Commerce- 
street  Bridge,  forbidding  the  discharge  of  fire-arms.  The  effort 

to  interfere 
with  the  inno- 
cent pastime 
of  the  people 
was  not  at  first 
attended  with 
any  flattering 
degree  of  suc- 
cess. On  the 
Fourth  of  July 
many  of  the  in- 
habitants were 
not  in  a  condi- 
tion to  make 
bull's  eyes. 
Some  idea  of 
the  inaccuracy 
of  their  target- 
practice  may 
be  obtained 
from  an  old  da- 

guerrotype  of  the  sign  before  referred  to,  as  it  appeared  on  the 
morning  of  the  5th  of  July,  1849. 

Some  of  the  old  city  ordinances  of  San  Antonio,  when  under 
Spanish  rule,  I  consider  of  sufficient  interest  to  justify  me  in 
inserting  a  translation  here  :  — 

VARIOUS    MUNICIPAL    REGULATIONS    AND    ORDINANCES 
FOR   SAN   ANTONIO    IN    1823. 

Considering  the  deplorable  state  of  society  prevailing  in  this  city,  the 
want  of  cleanliness  of  the  streets  and  plazas,  the  filthiness  of  the  ditches, 
and  ruinous  condition  of  the  bridges,  etc.,  occasioned  by  a  complete  dis- 
regard of  former  regulations  and  ordinances :  therefore,  such  abuses 
being  highly  injurious  to  public  health,  it  has  become  of  imperious 
necessity  to  issue  a  new  regulation  of  police  and  good  government, 


CITY  ORDINANCES  IN  1823.  373 

for  the  purpose  of  putting  an  end  to*  such  evils,  and  promoting  the 
security  and  comfort  of  the  citizens. 

Therefore  the  illustrious  Ayuntamento  has  resolved  and  decreed  the 
following  provisions,  the  observance  of  which  is  rendered  obligatory  : 

Every  person  who  keeps  hogs  shall  have  them  kept  in  pens.  The 
owners  of  any  such  animals,  found  in  the  street,  shall  be  fined  one  dollar. 

Any  person  wishing  to  give  a  ball  shall  give  advice  thereof  to  the 
alcalde  of  first  vote,  under  penalty  of  forfeiting  fifty  cents.  The  musi- 
cians who  shall  play  for  such  balls  shall  incur  the  same  fine. 

Any  person  who  shall  leap  over  a  fence  without  the  authorization  of 
the  owner  of  the  premises  shall,  besides  making  good  the  damage,  be 
fined  in  a  sum  of  six  dollars. 

In  view  of  a  more  perfect  and  strict  execution  of  the  present  pro- 
visions, the  illustrious  Ayuntamento  has  been  pleased  to  put  the  four 
wards  of  this  city  under  the  special  care  of  the  several  regidores,  as 
follows :  to  wit,  for  the  ward  of  San  Antonio  de  Valero,  the  Alcalde 
Vincente  Gortare ;  for  the  north  ward,  Don  Luceano  Navarro ;  for  the 
south  ward,  Don  Francisco  Thurtillos ;  for  the  ward  of  Laredo,  Juan 
Jose  Maria  Escalera.  The  illustrious  Ayuntamento  has  further  been 
pleased  to  appoint  Don  Jesus  del  Tory,  Don  Meguil  Munos,  Don  Mel- 
chior  Leal,  and  Don  Francisco  Bustilla,  to  act  under  the  regidores  in 
their  respective  wards,  with  the  denomination  of  "  ward-commissioners." 

It  shall  be  the  duty  of  said  commissioners  to  see  that  no  vagrants,  or 
people  of  bad  life,  introduce  themselves  into  the  wards.  If  such  should 
happen,  they  shall  inform  the  regidor  of  the  fact,  who  will  report  the 
same  to  the  constitutional  alcaldes. 

The  ward-commissioners,  being  considered  the  fathers  of  their  wards, 
shall  endeavor,  without,  however,  penetrating  into  the  houses,  to  settle 
and  conciliate  such  domestic  dissensions  or  quarrels  as  may  come  within 
their  notice,  except  such  as  have  a  scandalous  appearance.  Regarding 
these,  they  will  give  advice  to  their  respective  regidores,  and  these  to 
the  alcaldes. 

In  case  of  a  conflagration,  or  any  other  calamity  of  the  kind,  the 
commissioners  shall  hasten  to  the  spot,  and  organize  such  assistance  as 
may  be  required. 

Any  citizen  who  shall  harbor  a  stranger  in  his  house  shall  immediately 
inform  the  commissioner,  at  his  respective  ward,  of  the  fact,  stating  the 
place  where  such  person  came  from,  the  purpose  of  his  travel,  the  names 
of  his  associates,  etc.  The  commissioner  shall  report  to  the  regidor,  and 
he  to  the  alcaldes.  Any  delinquent  shall  be  fined  ten  dollars. 


374  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Servants  wishing  to  pass  from  one  master  to  another  shall  give  fifteen 
days'  notice,  previous  to  leaving  him,  in  order  that  he  may  secure  the 
services  of  other  persons.  The  servants  may  then  look  for  another 
master,  after  having  obtained  of  the  former  a  paper  signed  by  the 
regidor  or  commissioner  of  their  respective  wards,  and  stating  the 
amount  of  their  liabilities  towards  said  former  masters. 

Any  person  wishing  to  go  out  to  hunt  mustangs  or  cattle  shall  pre- 
viously advise  the  alcalde,  and,  on  their  return,  produce  to  him  such 
animals  as  they  have  captured,  in  order  that  the  marks  and  brands 
thereof  may  be  ascertained.  Any  infraction  of  this  provision  shall  be 
punished  by  a  fine  of  ten  dollars.  Any  persons  who  shall  go  out  hunt- 
ing without  advice,  and  shall  not  exhibit  the  ears  and  brands  of  the  ani- 
mals they  may  have  killed  in  the  fields,  shall  forfeit  double  the  above 
specified  amount. 

Given  in  the  city  of  San  Antonio  de  Bexar,  the  first  day  of  February, 
1823. 

JOSE  ANTO.   SACUEDO. 
GASPER   FLORES. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  penalties  attached  to  these  ordi- 
nances were  not  properly  graded.  A  person  could  give  a  ball 
at  his  house,  and  only  be  fined  fifty  cents ;  while  it  would  seem, 
from  the  reading  and  punctuation  of  the  hog  ordinance,  that 
the  owner  of  a  hog  must  not  be  found  on  the  streets  under  a 
penalty  of  one  dollar. 

It  awakens  painful  emotions  when  we  think  of  the  ward- 
commissioners  being  required  to  "  conciliate  domestic  dissen- 
sions." We  find  no  instructions  given  to  the  commissioner  as 
to  how  he  should  act  if  the  domestic  dissenter  refused  to  be 
conciliated,  and  turned  on  him  with  a  club. 

Up  to  the  year  1850,  the  great  majority  of  the  people  being 
Catholic,  religious  processions  were  popular.  The  carrying  in 
procession,  from  the  church,  of  the  last  sacrament  to  a  dying 
man,  by  surpliced  priests  chanting  the  litany,  was  very  solemn 
and  impressive,  especially  to  the  invalid  himself.  This  custom 
has  been  discontinued  of  late  years,  but  in  former  days  nothing 
was  more  common. 

An  American  living  near  the  church  on  the  Plaza  de  las 
Islas  had  a  remarkably  intelligent  parrot,  that,  by  often  hear- 


THE    WICKED  PARROT. 


375 


ing  the  doleful  chant,  had  learned  to  imitate  it  exactly.  The 
lamentations  of  Jeremiah  were  jovial  madrigals  compared  to 
the  funereal  chant  of  the  foreign  bird.  Mexicans  coming  to 


'ORA    PRO    NOBIS!" 


market  would  attract  the  attention  of  the  parrot,  and  he  would 
forthwith  begin  to  chant  in  the  whining  voice  of  the  trained  eccle- 
siastic. The  Mexicans,  never  suspecting  that  a  bird  was  guilty 
of  such  blasphemous  conduct,  would  with  reverence  doff  their 


376  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

sombreros,  drop  down  on  their  knees,  and  wait  patiently  for 
the  procession  to  pass.  Fresh  Mexicans  would  come  along, 
and  assume  devout  positions  on  the  sidewalks,  alongside  of  the 
first,  until  they  impeded  travel  on  the  streets,  and  were  dis- 
persed by  the  police.  Even  after  the  fraud  was  discovered,  no 
Mexican  ever  passed  the  parrot  without  raising  his  hat,  and 
making  the  sign  of  the  cross..  The  bird  was  finally  purchased 
by  the  proprietor  of  a  Commerce-street  saloon,  and  kept  in  a 
cage  in  a  gambling-room  in  the  back  part  of  the  premises. 
Ever  and  anon  the  Mexican  blackleg  would  drop  his  cards,  and 
gaze  about  with  blanched  cheek,  as  the  familiar,  sonorous  chant, 
interspersed  with  mild  frontier  profanity,  sounded  over  his  head : 
"  Ora  pro  nobis  !  Doggone  the  luck  !  Pater  noster  !  Keno  !  " 

Almost  every  article  of  food  used  by  the  Mexicans  has  red 
pepper  in  it  in  some  shape ;  and  not  only  Mexicans,  but  Ameri- 
cans, use  pepper  freely,  either  in  its  ground  form,  sprinkled 
over  meat  and  vegetables,  or  in  the  pod,  boiled  in  soup.  The 
Mexicans  call  it  chili.  The  well-known  author,  Mr.  N.  Web- 
ster, calls  it  Capsicum  frutescens  (Solanacea).  When  a  stranger 
for  the  first  time  tastes  a  Mexican  dish  seasoned  with  Capsicum 
frutescens,  he  wants  the  fire-department  called  out  at  once. 

The  reporter  who  dined  with  us  called  the  red-pepper-pods 
on  the  table  Texas  strawberries,  and  tried  to  impose  on  the 
doctor,  insisting  that  he  should  eat  some  of  them  with  cream 
and  sugar.  Failing  in  this,  he  told  the  following  :  — 

"  In  this  quaint  old  Alamo  City  it  never  rains  but  it  pours. 
Week  after  week  will  drag  itself  along  without  there  being  any 
item  more  startling  or  unusual  than  a  Mexican  raid  or  a  murder- 
trial.  The  newspaper-man  in  search  of  live  items  will  begin  to 
despair  of  any  thing  happening  worth  reporting,  when  suddenly, 
inside  of  fifteen  minutes,  the  entire  community  will  be  shaken 
from  centre  to  circumference  by  a  dog-fight,  and  the  simulta- 
neous arrival  of  a  wagon-load  of  El  Paso  onions,  or  some  like 
event  of  national  moment.  Yesterday  morning  the  gloom  was 
chased  out  of  my  private  office  by  the  appearance  of  William 
McManus  from  the  Calaveras.  Perceiving  that  he  was  in  great 
pain  to  impart  something  of  importance,  probably  about  our 
border  complications,  I  inquired  what  was  the  matter. 


JAKE  MULLINS. 


377 


" '  There  is  no  news  out  in  the  settlement,  except  that  Jake 
Mullins  has  run  off  and  left  his  sick  old  father.  The  old  man 
is  more'n  eighty  years  of  age,  and  crippled  up  right  smart.' 

"  '  How  did  it  happen  ? ' 

" '  Well,  you  see,  the  Mullinses  is  new-comers.  They  have 
come  to  our  coun- 
t  r  y  from  Ohio  ; 
and  they  are  all 
green  except  Jake, 
who  ought  to  be 
hung  if  they  ketch 
him.' 

"  '  Why,     what 
did  he  do  ? ' 

"  '  What  did  he 
do !  Well,  you 
know  these  little 
Mexican  peppers, 
which  are  so  hot 
that  you  have  to 
put  on  two  pairs  of 
buckskin  gloves, 
and  wait  for  a  frost, 
before  you  can 
pick  them  ?  He 
told  his  father 
they  were  Texas 
strawberries ;  and 
the  old  man  stored 
away  about  a  pint 
of 'em  in  his  mouth 
before  he  found  it  out.  But  it  didn't  take  him  long  after  that. 
He  learned  right  rapid  for  an  old  man.' 

"  '  Didn't  Jake  know  how  hot  they  were  ?' 

" '  Of  course  he  knew  it.  He  walked  in  sorter  careless  to 
where  the  old  man  was  sitting  in  his  chair,  making  out  that  he 
was  eating  them  himself.  He  said,  "Ain't  these  Texas  straw- 
berries delicious  ?  They  remind  me  of  my  old  home."  Then 


OLD    MAN    MULLINS. 


378  ON  .A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

the  old  man's  mouth  watered,  and  Jake  gave  him  a  handful ; 
and  it  hasn't  stopped  watering  since ;  and  it  is  all  swelled,  be- 
sides, until  it  looks  like  the  toe  of  an  old  boot.' 

"  'Wasn't  Jake  afraid  to  arouse  his  father's  ire  ? '  we  wanted 
to  know. 

'"You  see,  Jake  knew  the  old  man  was  a  good  Christian,  and 
that,  on  account  of  the  rheumatiz,  he  couldn't  run :  so  he 
thought  he  was  safe.' 

'"How  did  it  turn  out?' 

"  '  Well,  you  couldn't  expect  him  to  say  much,  anyhow,  with 
that  mouth,  particularly  as  it  was  busy  getting  rid  of  them 
peppers  ;  but  what  he  did  say  was  no  camp-meeting  talk.  You 
couldn't  put  it  into  your  family  paper,  no  ways.  And,  as  for  his 
legs,  he  worked  them  like  they  were  new  ones.' 

"  '  Did  he  use  personal  violence  ? ' 

" '  Oh,  no !  of  course  not.  He  ran  about  with  the  Texas 
strawberries  and  the  cuss-words  dropping  out  of  his  mouth, 
hunting  for  the  shotgun.  You  see,  Jake  peppered  him,  and  he 
naturally  wanted  to  pepper  Jake.  He  had  to  put  up  with  an 
axe.  He  followed  Jake  around  for  an  hour ;  but  Jake  got  away, 
and  hasn't  been  heard  of  since.  The  old  man  is  very  much 
cast  down,  because  he  fears  Jake  won't  come  back.  He  feels 
that  he  was  too  hasty,  and  that  he  should  have  kept  quiet  till 
he  got  Jake  off  his  guard.  He  spends  his  time  squatting  down 
by  the  fence-corner  with  his  shotgun,  sighing  for  his  boy  to 
come  back.' " 


ADELS   VEREIN. 


379 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

BRAUNFELS  is  a  town 
thirty  miles  from  San 
Antonio,  inhabited 
altogether   by    Ger- 
mans.     The  popula- 
tion  is   about  four 
thousand.   The  town 
has  a  very  romantic 
and  strange  history. 
We    went    over    to 
New  Braunfels  in  the 
stage-coach  from  San 
Antonio,  the  report- 
er accompanying  us. 
He  was  writing  up  the  his- 
tory of    the    place.     I   bor- 
rowed some  of  his  history,  and 
found  it  reliable  —  as  history  goes. 

In  the  spring  of  Anno  Domini  1844, 
an  association  for  the  promotion  of  German  immigration  to 
Texas  was  formed  in  the  city  of  Mainz,  Germany.  The  associa- 
tion was  composed  exclusively  of  noblemen,  who  in  their  social 
relations  were  painfully  exclusive.  It  was  called  the  Adels 
Verein  ("Noblemen's  Association").  Every  member  was  af- 


380 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


flicted,  among  other  things,  with  a  pedigree.  They  did  nothing 
for  a  living ;  and,  as  a  general  thing,  it  took  them  all  day  to  do 
it.  Among  the  members  were  the  following :  the  Duke  oi 
Nassau,  the  Duke  of  Saxe-Meiningen,  the  Duke  of  Coburg- 
Gotha,  Prince  Frederick  of  Prussia,  the  Langraf  of  Hesse- 
Homburg,  the  Prince  of  Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt,  the  Prince 
Moritz  of  Nassau,  the  Prince  of  Leiningen,  the  Prince  of  New 
Weid,  the  Prince  Solms-Braunfels,  the  Count  of  New-Leinin- 
gen-Westerburg,  the  Count  Frederick  of  Alt-Leiningen-West- 
erburg,  the  Count  Ysenburg-Meerholz,  Count  Hatzfeldt,  Count 

Kniphausen,  Count  Renesse, 
Count  Lilienburg,  Count  Col- 
loredo  -  Mannsfeldt,  and  the 
Count  Carl  of  Castell. 

The  question  naturally 
arises,  Why  should  these  parn^ 
pered  sons  of  luxury  suddenly 
become  so  absorbed  in  immi- 
gration schemes  ?  Western 
Texas,  at  that  time,  was  in 
the  almost  undisturbed  pos- 
session of  the  coyote,  the  buf- 
falo, and  the  Indian.  It  seems 
hard  to  understand  why  the 
Adels  Verein  were  desirous  of 
populating  Texas.  There  was 
a  large-sized  bug  under  the 
Teutonic  chip.  The  bug  was  no  less  a  personage  than  Lord 
Palmerston,  prime-minister  of  England.  He  was  the  man  who 
pulled  the  wires,  and  set  all  the  little  German  counts  and 
dukes  to  dancing.  In  one  way  it  was  all  the  same  to  Lord 
Palmerston,  whether  the  wilds  of  Texas  were  settled  by  Indians 
or  Germans  ;  but  in  another  light  he  felt  as  much  interest  in 
the  German  settlements  in  Texas  as  if  he  owned  lands  out 
there  that  distressed  him  to  pay  taxes  on.  The  area  of  the 
United  States  was  already  much  larger  than  Lord  Palmerston 
cared  that  it  should  be  ;  and  he  determined,  if  possible,  to  pre- 
vent that  country  from  extending  any  farther  in  the  direction 


THE    REPORTER. 


LORD  PALMERSTON' S   WILES.  381 

of  Mexico.  Texas  was  then  a  republic :  she  thought  it  would 
be  a  judicious  thing  to  get  a  colony  of  Germans  between  the 
United  States  and  Mexico.  The  English  policy  was  to  pre- 
vent, under  all  circumstances  and  at  whatever  cost,  the  an- 
nexation of  Texas  to  the  United  States.  Lord  Palmerston 
could  have  sent  Englishmen  out  to  Texas ;  but  they  were  more 
useful  at  home,  where  they  paid  taxes.  The  monkey  could 
have  pulled  the  chestnuts  out  of  the  fire  himself,  but  that  would 
have  looked  like  a  personal  slight  to  the  cat.  Possibly  I  do  the 
Fritznoodle  Vereins  injustice,  when  I  suggest  that  they  were 
cat's-paws  of  Lord  Palmerston.  They  may  have  expected  to 
acquire  large  principalities  in  Texas,  and  ultimately  to  have 
annexed  Germany  to  the  new  country.  Apparently  this  was 
perfectly  feasible ;  for  at  that  time  Texas  had  hardly  one  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants  who  observed  the  proprieties,  and  did  not 
daub  chromos  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  over  their  nakedness. 
A  sufficient  number  of  German  immigrants  could  be  sent  over 
to  make  German  influence  predominate,  and  thus  prevent  the 
United  States  from  joining  fences  with  Mexico.  Letters  writ- 
ten by  Prince  Solms-Braunfels,  the  representative  in  Texas  of 
the  Adels  Verein,  and  a  relative  of  the  English  royal  family, 
show  that  this  was  one  of  the  motives  of  the  enterprise. 

Every  male  emigrant  from  Germany  was  promised  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  acres  of  land,  and  to  every  family  was  promised 
twice  as  much. 

As  before  stated,  the  members  of  the  Fritznoodle  Verein 
were  all  of  the  blue-blood  aristocracy  of  Germany.  They  actu- 
ally revelled  in  a  wealth  of  cerulean  gore.  There  was  one  thing 
they  were  quite  positive  of :  and  that  was  that  man,  properly 
speaking,  began  with  the  rank  of  baron  ;  all  born  below  that 
rank  belonged  to  an  inferior  order  of  creation. 

No  further  proof  was  needed  of  the  unfitness  of  the  Fritz- 
noodle  family  for  the  successful  transaction  of  business ;  but, 
nevertheless,  they  soon  began  to  furnish  additional  and  over- 
whelming evidence  of  it.  The  association  purchased  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  square  miles  of  land  in  Western  Texas,  from  a 
Frenchman  named  Bourgeois  d'Orvanne,  to  whom  it  did  not 
belong.  Instead  of  buying  land,  they  themselves  were  sold, 


382  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

which  is  usually  the  case  when  any  high-born  aristocrat  under- 
takes to  trade  with  persons  destitute  of  blood.  This  French- 
man was  a  man  of  low  degree,  without  rank,  and  having  no  title 
—  to  the  land  he  sold  the  association.  The  Fritznoodles  did  not 
find  out  that  they  had  been  swindled  until  the  advance  guard 
of  the  immigrants  —  one  hundred  and  fifty  families  —  had  ar- 
rived in  Galveston. 

The  next  sacred  duty  devolving  on  Prince  Solms-Braunfels, 
who  was  the  agent  and  representative  of  the  Adels  Verein  in 
Texas,  was  to  discover  some  other  man  who  had  land  to  sell. 
He  had  to  be  in  a  hurry  about  finding  a  fresh  rascal,  as  the  im- 
migrants at  Galveston  were  beginning  to  develop  some  disloyal 
disgust.  They  could  not  well  stay  where  they  were,  and  they 
did  not  know  any  more  than  did  Prince  Solms-Braunfels  where 
to  go.  The  prince  soon  found  another  unavailable  piece  of 
land  to  buy.  There  were  two  Germans  in  Texas,  Fisher  and 
Miller,  who  had  a  contract  with  the  Republic  of  Texas  by 
which  they  were  to  obtain  a  large  tract  of  land  on  the  Llano 
River,  on  condition  that  they  would  settle  six  thousand  immi- 
grants on  the  lands.  Prince  Solms  bought  the  land.  After  he 
had  paid  twelve  thousand  guldens  to  Fisher  and  Miller,  he  con- 
ceived a  bright  idea  :  probably  it  was  suggested  to  him  by  some 
impatient  immigrant.  The  idea  was  to  find  out  where  the 
newly  acquired  Eldorado  was  situated.  He  learned  that  the 
land  was  beautifully  located  on  the  Llano  River,  some  four 
hundred  miles  from  Galveston.  This  distance  was  a  very  for- 
tunate circumstance  ;  as  it  prevented  the  Indians,  in  whose 
undisputed  possession  the  land  was,  from  killing  and  scalping 
the  legal  owners.  The  preliminary  business  of  removing  the 
Indians  should  have  been  attended  to  by  Fisher  and  Miller ; 
but  these  two  worthies  found  it  easier  and  more  remunerative 
to  plunder  the  German  immigrants  than  to  interfere  with  a 
lot  of  healthy  Comanches.  From  what  I  can  learn,  the  heads 
of  Fisher  and  Miller  were  entirely  flat  on  top.  In  all,  they 
captured  eighteen  thousand  dollars  from  the  Fritznoodle  Ve- 
rein. When  Solms  bought  the  land,  he  evidently  did  not  intend 
the  purchase  to  include  the  Indians,  for  he  made  no  attempt  to 
dispose  of  them.  Owing  to  the  activity  and  enterprise  of  the 


PRINCE   SOLMS-BRAUNFELS  IN  TEXAS.          383 

Comanches,  and  other  tribes,  in  resenting  intrusion,  it  was  a 
very  difficult  matter  to  find  a  live  man  who  had  seen  the  land 
in  question.  After  the  Indians  got  through  with  an  explorer, 
he  was  not  disposed  to  be  communicative,  and  was  completely 
unfitted  to  describe  scenery. 

According  to  the  statements  of  Fisher  and  Miller,  the  land 
they  sold  was  a  perfect  paradise,  abounding  in  rich  mines  of 
gold  and  silver,  having  an  Italian  climate,  and  all  kinds  of 
tropical  fruits.  Game  was  also  very  abundant.  All  the  Ger- 
man immigrant  would  have  to  do,  after  building  his  humble 
cabin  on  the  bank  of  a  babbling  brook,  would  be  to  cast  his 
line  into  the  stream,  and  pull  up  a  forty-pound  salmon.  Drop- 
ping his  rod,  he  would  seize  his  trusty  yaeger,  and,  firing  at 
random,  bring  down  a  stately  buck  or  ponderous  buffalo.  And 
thus  it  would  be  all  day  long,  —  jerk!  up  comes  a  fish:  bang! 
down  goes  a  deer,  —  his  wife  and  little  ones  swinging  in  their 
hammocks,  lulled  to  sleep  by  the  gentle  Gulf-breeze  sighing 
through  the  tree-tops ;  and  all  around,  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach,  nothing  but  oranges  and  bananas,  with  a  sprinkling  of 
lofty  palm-trees  to  inspire  poetic  thought. 

The  fact  is,  the  German  immigrant  of  that  day  had  a  very 
similar  idea  of  the  Llano  country  to  what  the  English  immi- 
grant of  to-day  has  of  South-western  Texas.  The  charges  of 
exaggeration  made  against  Fisher  and  Miller  in  the  German 
papers  in  1844-45  are  bewilderingly  similar  to  those  made  in  the 
English  papers  to-day  against  some  Texas  immigrant  agents. 

The  new  purchase  was  one  hundred  miles  from  the  habita- 
tion of  any  white  man,  —  an  unpleasant  prospect  to  men  who 
were  not  in  the  habit  of  missing  their  meals,  and  who  were 
accustomed  to  spend  their  evenings  in  social  intercourse  in 
cosey  beer-saloons. 

Finally  Prince  Solms  bought  a  tract  of  land  between  the 
Guadaloupe  and  Comal  Rivers,  which  was  to  serve  as  a  half- 
way station  between  the  coast  and  the  lands  of  the  association 
on  the  Llano.  This  settlement  was  called  New  Braunfels. 
The  land  on  which  the  present  town  of  New  Braunfels  is  situ- 
ated has  been  in  litigation  for  a  number  of  years.  Prince 
Solms,  realizing  that  he  did  not  thoroughly  understand  the  Texas 


384  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

land  business,  and  that  managing  the  affairs  of  a  colony  was  not 
his  forte,  resigned  his  position,  and  returned  to  Germany. 

The  facts  in  the  following  sketch  of  Prince  Solms  were 
translated  from  the  ".Anzeger  des  Westens  "  by  the  reporter  :  — 
Prince  Solms-Braunfels  was  a  chivalrous  young  man,  of  pre- 
possessing appearance  and  engaging  manners,  friendly  and 
affable  in  his  intercourse  with  the  colonists,  and  consequently 
much  liked  by  them.  The  idea  of  conquering  Texas,  even  if  he 
had  to  accomplish  it  with  the  sword,  in  order  to  advance  the  in- 
terests of  his  cousin,  as  he  called  Queen  Victoria,  was  constantly 
before  him,  and  gave  rise  to  many  ludicrous  scenes. 

It  is  very  natural  that  there  should  be  a  great  many  comic 
interviews  between  a  prince  of  the  royal  blood,  brought  up  to 
regard  himself  as  of  a  superior  race,  endowed  with  all  the  privi- 
leges of  an  hereditary  aristoc- 
racy, and  the  American  settlers, 
with  their  pride  of  being  self- 
made  men,  and  their  utter  disre- 
gard for  the  titles  and  preten- 
sions of  royalty ;  and  hence 
there  are  hundreds  of  amusing 
anecdotes  of  conversations  that 
the  prince  had  with  native 
Americans. 

The  total  absence  of  any 
thing  like  deference,  which  was 
observed  wherever  he  went,  not- 
withstanding it  was  well  known 
that  the  blood  of  a  long  line  of 
princes  flowed  in  his  veins,  did 

PRINCE  SOLMS  SEALING  A  DEED.          not  please  him  \   and  when  on 

one  occasion,  at  a  dinner,  a  very 

much  elongated  specimen  of  an  American  farmer,  who  was  the 
proprietor  of  sixty  acres  of  land  and  two  negroes,  in  reply  to 
some  of  the  prince's  high-strung  rhapsodies,  answered  bluntly 
that  in  this  free  country  every  citizen  was  a  king,  he  lost  all 
taste  for  republics.  When  he  had  occasion  to  sign  deeds,  and 
other  documents  of  importance,  he  did  so  with  the  seal  of  his 


THE  PRINCE'S  BODY-GUARD.  385 

coat-of-arms  on  the  hilt  of  his  sword  (he  never  went  out  with- 
out his  sword) ;  and  to  him  it  was  incomprehensible  why  the 
Americans  present  laughed.  He  thought  it  was  a  very  impos- 
ing act  to  draw  his  glittering  blade  from  the  scabbard,  turn  it 
with  a  bold  flourish,  and  bring  the  golden  seal  on  the  pommel 
down  on  the  wafer. 

After  he  had  established  his  headquarters  at  the  Sophienburg, 
in  the  settlement  of  New  Braunfels,  he  organized  a  body-guard, 
composed  of  the  sturdy  young  men  of  the  neighborhood,  not 
only  for  personal  protection,  but  also  to  be  used  against  the 
Indians.  His  principal  object  was  to  form  the  nucleus  of  the 
army  he  proposed  to  raise.  There,  however,  could  not  have 
been  much  discipline  among  the  troops,  which  were  commanded 
by  Baron  von  Wrede.  In  illustration  of  this  assumption,  we 
have  the  following  anecdote  :  — 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  prince  to  hold  reviews  of  this  com- 
pany at  Sophienburg.  On  one  such  occasion  it  began  to  rain, 
whereupon  the  company  broke  ranks,  and  retired  in  disorder  to 
their  homes.  They  went  and  returned  not.  All  attempt  to 
induce  them  to  do  so  failed,  notwithstanding  the  eloquent  pro- 
fanity of  the  officers  in  command.  Rigid  with  astonishment, 
the  prince  gazed  at  his  retreating  body-guard,  and  then  upon  his 
adjutant,  their  commander;  and  at  last,  with  disgust  and  con- 
tempt in  every  tone  of  his  voice,  he  thundered  forth,  "Herr 
von  Wrede,  is  that  my  army  ?  " 

Shortly  afterwards  this  army  broke  out  in  open  rebellion  ; 
and  when,  instead  of  the  black  and  yellow  flag,  the  ensign  of 
the  prince's  house,  they  ran  up  the  Lone  Star  banner  of  the 
Texas  republic,  he  began  to  suspect  that  there  was  not  much  to 
be  done  in  the  way  of  conquests  with  troops  of  that  character. 

Baron  Otto  von  Meusebach  succeeded  Prince  Solms-Braun- 
fels  in  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  association.  He 
was  a  thorough  business  man,  of  heavy  calibre,  and  much  better 
suited  to  the  position  than  Prince  Solms.  Baron  Meusebach 
arrived  in  the  summer  of  1845.  He  saw  that  it  was  impossible 
to  settle  his  people  on  the  western  lands  of  the  association. 
He  founded  another  settlement,  about  seventy  miles  west  of 
New  Braunfels,  and  named  it  Fredericksburg  in  honor  of  Prince 
25 


386 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


Frederick  of  Prussia.  (Fredericksburg  is  now  a  town  of  sev- 
eral hundred  inhabitants  ;  and  all  but  two  families  are  German, 
or  of  German  descent.)  While  Baron  von  Meusebach  was 
busy  getting  his  colonies  in  order,  the  Adels  Verein  sent  out 
nearly  four  thousand  persons,  in  sailing-ships,  to  Texas.  The 


•HERR  VON  WREDE,  IS  THAT  MY  ARMYP" 


association  made  no  provision  for  these  people  after  reaching 
Texas.  Von  Meusebach  was  not  furnished  with  means ;  and, 
being  unable  to  do  any  thing  for  the  immigrants,  he  had  to 
leave  them  to  their  fate.  In  the  spring  of  1846  more  than 
three  thousand  of  these  immigrants  had  congregated  on  the 
coast  of  Indianola.  They  were  almost  entirely  without  means 
of  subsistence,  and  there  was  no  way  to  transport  them  to  the 


FRITZNOODLE'S  MISMANAGEMENT.  387 

German  settlements  at  New  Braunfels  and  Fredericksburg. 
They  lived  in  tents,  and  in  holes  dug  in  the  ground.  For 
weeks  the  rain  came  down  in  torrents,  and  drove  them  from 
their  subterranean  abodes,  and  destroyed  much  of  their  worldly 
possessions.  The  American  settlers  helped  them,  but  the 
Americans  had  not  much  themselves.  Some  food  was  received 
from  Galveston,  but  not  enough  to  feed  such  a  vast  number  of 
hungry,  starving  people.  Fish,  wild  duck,  and  other  game  were 
abundant,  and  prevented  an  absolute  famine.  A  malignant  fever 
broke  out,  and  hundreds  died  of  it.  The  survivors  were  just 
able  to  scratch  shallow  holes,  and  bury  the  dead.  The  wolves 
at  night  completed  the  obsequies.  An  occasional  teamster  came 
along,  and  was  induced  to  carry  a  few  of  the  immigrants  to  the 
New  Braunfels  settlement.  Some  started  there  on  foot ;  leaving 
not  only  their  property,  but  their  sick  and  dying  relatives,  be- 
hind them.  Most  of  these  died  on  the  way.  It  has  been  esti- 
mated, that,  of  about  five  thousand  immigrants  who  arrived  in 
Texas  during  two  years,  only  fifteen  hundred  reached  the  Ger- 
man settlements.  The  others  died  miserable  deaths,  caused  by 
fever,  starvation,  exposure,  and  Fritznoodle  mismanagement. 

Those  who  reached  the  settlement  brought  the  fever  with 
them,  and  for  some  time  it  seemed  as  if  the  whole  colony  was 
doomed  to  annihilation.  But  the  Germans  are  tenacious  of 
life.  The  immigrants  went  to  work,  relied  on  themselves 
alone,  made  the  best  of  their  surroundings,  and  eventually 
flourished  and  prospered  beyond  their  most  sanguine  antici- 
pations. Thus  began  and  ended  the  most  extraordinary  colo- 
nization scheme  known  in  history.  The  result  has  been 
far  different  from  what  the  German  nobles  expected.  They 
thought  to  build  up  an  empire  that  would  stand  a  barrier 
between  the  United  States  and  Mexico.  They  failed,  but 
Texas  gained  some  of  the  most  industrious  and  valuable  pio- 
neers and  citizens  in  the  world.  One  of  those  Adels  Verein 
immigrants  was,  a  year  or  two  ago,  carried  from  the  national 
capital  to  his  grave  in  Texas ;  and  seldom  has  there  been  seen 
in  the  United  States  a  more  magnificent  pageant  than  that 
which  followed  and  did  honor  to  the  remains  of  the  Hon.  Gus- 
tav  Schleicher,  congressman  from  Texas. 


i88 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

TO  New  Braunfels  on  the  stage,  I  had  a 
seat  on  the  box  with  the  driver  :  the  doc- 
tor and  the  reporter  were  on  the  roof  be- 
hind. The  stage-driver  was  a  desperado- 
like  man,  with  a  dyed  mustache  and  a 
sarcastic  wink.  He  evidently  was  full  of 
information  and  instructive  conversation, 
but  seemed  as  if  he  hated  to  part  with 
any  of  it :  it  had  to  be  seduced  out  of 
him  gradually.  He  spoke  in  short  sen- 
tences, and  never  enlarged  upon  the  sub- 
ject. When  he  addressed  his  horses,  it 
was  in  an  explosive  and  reproachful  way  : 
"Pete!  Jim  !  g'lang  !  " 

"  Good  team  you  drive." 
"Tolerable." 

"  Been  on  the  road  long  ? " 
"Right  smart." 
"  Ever  been  stopped  by  the  road-agents  on  this  line? " 
"  Now  you're  talkin'." 

"Were  you  on  the  stage  that  was  robbed  last  year,  when  two 
robbers  made  nine  passengers  hold  up  their  hands  ? " 

"Oh,  no!  I  wasn't  neither!  and  I  didn't  hold  up  my  hands 
with  the  rest.  You  wouldn't  if  you  had  been  there.  Oh, 
no!" 

This  he  said ;  and,  when  he  said  it,  he  flipped  a  fly  off  Pete's 
shoulder,  and  winked  one  of  his  indescribable  winks.  He  never 
winked  at  any  person  in  particular,  but  included  his  horses,  the 
road,  the  trees,  and  the  surrounding  scenery  generally. 


THE    START. 


A   STAGE-ROBBERY.  389 

The  doctor,  who  has  the  credit  of  being  very  brave  at  long 
range,  said  he  would  like  to  see  any  stage-robber  make  him 
hold  up  his  hands  if  he  were  armed. 

"  So  would  I,"  said  the  driver. 

"The  idea,"  continued  the  doctor,  "of  nine  men,  two  of  them 
being  United-States  soldiers,  standing  in  a  row  by  the  wayside, 
with  their  hands  above  their  heads,  and  their  arms  spread  out 
like  railroad-signals  !  It's  absurd." 

"  It's  all  very  well  to  talk  that  way  when  the  robbers  are  not 
around,"  said  the  reporter;  "but  what  are  you  going  to  do 
when  a  couple  of  men  step  out  from  behind  a  tree,  and  get  the 
drop  on  you  before  you  have  time  to  reach  for  your  fire-arms  ? 
Why,  you  hold  up  your  hands  at  once  if  you  have  got  any 
sense.  It  is  true,  that  if  eight  or  nine  men  resisted  two,  and 
fired  on  them,  the  robbers  would,  no  doubt,  be  routed :  but  blood 
would  be  shed  among  the  passengers ;  and  few  men  care  to  take 
the  risk  for  the  sake  of  saving  a  gold  watch,  or  the  few  dollars 
they  may  have  in  their  pockets." 

"  So  you  would  hold  up  your  hands,  would  you  ? "  said  the 
doctor. 

"  I  have  done  'it.  I  have  held  them  up  until  my  suspenders 
gave  way,"  said  the  reporter;  "and  I  didn't  feel  like  a  coward 
either." 

"  Let  us  have  all  the  heart-rending  details,"  said  the  doctor. 

At  this  request,  the  reporter  cleared  his  throat,  and  began  as 
follows :  — 

"There  were  four  of  us  in  the  stage,  and  we  had  just  got  to 
the  San-Saba  bottom.  It  was  quite  cold,  and  the  sides  of  the 
stage  were  all  buttoned  down.  It  was  as  dark  as  the  inside  of 
a  box  of  blacking,  when  somebody  called  out,  '  Halt ! '  and  the 
stage  came  to  a  stand,  when  one  of  us  called  out,  '  Is  this  the 
stage-stand  ? '  The  driver  spoke  up  and  said,  '  No  :  this  is  Six- 
shooter  post-office.'  Then  we  heard  a  voice  saying,  'You  fel- 
lers inside  there,  get  out,  one  at  a  time ;  and  the  first  one  that 
comes  out  with  a  pistol  is  gwine  ter  have  the  top  of  his  head 
blowed  off.  Alight,  strangers,  one  at  a  time,  keerfully.' 

"  When  we  heard  this,  we  knew  the  stage  was  going  to  be 
robbed  of  its  contents ;  so  we  began  hiding  our  valuables. 


390 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


Some  stuffed  money  into  their  boots,  others  into  the  cushions 
of  the  stage.  The  first  man  who  got  out  was  a  Mr.  Marsh. 
He  hadn't  been  in  the  State  long,  and  had  no  experience  with 

stage  -  robbers  ; 
but  he  got  out 
all  the  same. 
On  alighting 
from  the  stage, 
he  found  a  re. 
ception  commit- 
tee waiting  to 
take  his  baggage 
from  him.  There 
were  two  men 
dressed  in  blue 
overcoats,  with 
slouched  ranger 
hats  on,  and 
with  their  pants 
stuffed  in  their 
boots.  One  was  a  tall  man, 
six  feet  high,  rather  heavy 
built.  The  other  was  a 
small  man,  about  five  feet 
five  inches,  would  weigh 
about  a  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  pounds,  and  had  a  dark 
complexion.  The  tall  man 
held  a  six-shooter  in  each 
hand  (a  full  hand  is  a  safe 
thing  to  call  on) ;  while  the 
little  fellow  only  had  one 
pistol  drawn,  he  using  the 
other  hand  as  a  contribution- 
box.  Marsh  had  hidden  most  of  his  money  in  his  shoes,  but 
he  let  the  little  fellow  have  ten  dollars.  He  saved  the  money 
in  his  shoes.  After  Marsh  had  made  his  contribution,  he  was 
told  to  go  back  into  the  stage.  The  next  man  who  was  ordered 


A    STAGE-ROBBERY. 


A    STAGE-ROBBERY.  391 

out  was  myself.  The  large  robber  had  the  two  pistols  pointing 
at  me,  while  the  little  one  only  aimed  one  in  my  direction.  I 
liked  the  little  one  best.  He  asked  my  name,  and  I  told  him. 
I  asked  him  what  his  name  was,  and  he  turned  it  off  by  saying 
that  it  was  none  of  my business.  I  told  him  I  was  travel- 
ling for  a  San  Antonio  leather-house,  to  which  he  replied  that 
that  was  not -going  to  save  my  hide.  I  had  put  my  watch  in- 
side of  my  vest  for  fear  I  might  lose.it,  and  I  stuffed  a  few 
dollars  in  my  boots.  I  handed  him  four  or  five  dollars.  He 
took  that ;  but  he  failed  to  find  seven  hundred  dollars  that  I  had 
—  I  had  them  several  years  ago  before  I  went  into  the  news- 
paper business. 

" '  Turn  them  cussed  pockets  inside  out,'  said  the  leader. 

"  Whenever  a  gentleman  speaks  politely  to  me,  and  wants  a 
favor  done,  I'm  always  willing  to  go  out  of  my  way  to  accom- 
modate him  :  so  I  turned  the  pockets  inside  out,  and  produced 
about  ten  dollars  more  that  I  had  overlooked  in  the  excitement 
of  the  moment.  When  he  saw  the  money,  the  robber  shook 
his  head,  and  said  that  it  grieved  him  to  see  a  young  man  take 
to  lying.  If  all  young  men  did  that  way,  what  would  become 
of  the  country  ?  He  then  asked  me  to  lend  him  my  rings  to 
remember  me  by.  I  told  him  one  of  the  rings  didn't  belong  to 
me,  and  the  other  was  an  old  family  relic.  He  didn't  take  the 
rings.  I  climbed  back  into  the  stage,  and  told  Gus  Mueller, 
who  travels  for  B.  Oppenheimer  &  Co.,  that  there  was  a  gentle- 
man outside  waiting  to  converse  with  him  on  business. 

"Gus  Mueller  had  hidden  ten  dollars  in  the  lining  of  the 
stage ;  but  they  took  his  pocket-book,  with  five  dollars  and  a 
check.  This  was  about  the  only  check  they  received  during 
the  whole  performance.  They  didn't  search  the  persons  of  any 
of  us.  They  examined  one  pistol,  but  said  it  was  a  Rem- 
ington, and  didn't  suit  them.  After  they  had  cross-examined 
Mueller,  they  told  him  to  go  back  into  the  stage.  They  then 
requested  the  driver  to  throw  down  the  bag  with  the  registered 
letters,  which  he  did.  When  it  came  to  distributing  the  mail, 
those  fellows  beat  the  post-office  clerks.  They  took  the  regis- 
tered packages.  We  thought  we  were  over  our  troubles,  but 
in  this  we  were  mistaken.  After  they  had  held  a  caucus,  the 


392  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

little  one  called  out,  'Gentlemen,  please  be  kind  enough  to 
alight,  and  go  to  the  heads  of  the  horses,  and  stand  there  with 

your  backs  turned  for  a  few  minutes  ;  and  the  first  of  you 

that  turns  his head  around  will  get '  — 

"  He  then  went  on  to  say  that  he  believed  there  was  some 

more  money  in  the  crowd,  and  some  of  us rascals  had  been 

stealing  our  money  from  him.  He  didn't  seem  to  have  too 
much  confidence  in  us.  One  of  the  robbers  borrowed  a  piece 
of  candle  from  one  of  the  stage-lanterns.  While  the  big  one 
shook  his  pistol  at  us,  the  little  one  assorted  out  our  clothes  in 
the  vehicle,  but  without  finding  any  of  the  hidden  money.  All 
our  valises  were  opened  and  examined.  There  was  quite  a 
number  of  bottles  of  whiskey  in  the  stage,  which  we  had  taken 
along  in  case  of  sickness ;  but  the  robbers  didn't  take  any." 

The  reporter  concluded  by  saying  that  that  was  the  only 
stage-robbing  experience  he  had  ever  had. 

The  driver  looked  earnestly  at  the  doctor,  cracked  his  whip,  and 
winked  at  all  that  part  of  the  State  west  of  the  Colorado  River. 

The  doctor  said  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  State  to  stop 
stage-robberies ;  but  he  failed  to  suggest  any  plan  by  which  it 
could  effect  this  object,  and,  desiring,  evidently,  to  change  the 
subject,  he  gave  the  conversation  an  agricultural  turn. 

When  we  came  within  eight  or  ten  miles  of  New  Braunfels, 
we  began  to  go  through  lanes.  The  whole  country  within  a 
radius  of  ten  miles,  taking  New  Braunfels  as  the  centre,  is 
under  cultivation.  Here  are  the  neatest  farms,  and  the  most 
thorough  cultivation  of  the  soil,  to  be  found  in  Texas.  Signs 
of  German  thrift  are  to  be  found  on  every  hand.  Fences  are 
either  of  good,  strong  rails,  or  rock.  Substantial  houses,  barns, 
and  sheda  are  on  every  farm.  Nothing  is  wasted  :  straw  and 
fodder  are  saved  ;  the  manure  is  scraped  up,  and  used  in  or- 
chards ;  and  the  stones  are  picked  off  the  fields,  and  used  in 
the  improvement  of  the  roads.  When  we  passed  a  farm  any- 
where in  our  Texas  travels,  we  were  never  at  a  loss  to  know 
whether  the  owner  was  or  was  not  a  German.  When  we  saw  a 
farm  with  good  fences,  gates  that  swung  clear  of  the  ground, 
unused  agricultural  implements  under  a  shed,  a  well  in  the 
yard,  fruit-trees  and  a  vegetable-patch  behind  the  house,  stacks 


PHLEGMATIC   TEUTONS.  393 

of  winter  feed  in  the  lot,  and  the  doors  and  window-shutters 
painted,  evidently  by  local  artists,  in  different  colors  of  widely- 
contrasting  gorgeousness, — verdict  unanimous,  "German." 

When  we  saw  gates  make  tracks  in  the  road  when  opened, 
or  when  the  places  where  the  gates  should  have  been  were 
filled  with  brush  ;  when  the  owner  was  lying  asleep  on  the 
gallery,  with  his  head  on  a  saddle,  with  five  dogs  around  him, 
or  going  out  and  in  through  the  chinks  between  the  logs  of 
which  the  walls  of  the  house  were  built ;  when  we  saw  his 
saddle-horse,  hobbled  and  sore-backed,  picking  up  a  living  on 
the  roadside  ;  a  good  site  for  a  barn,  without  any  barn  on  it ;  a 
wagon  in  the  front-yard,  splitting  under  the  heat  of  a  semi- 
tropical  sun,  and  a  water-barrel  in  the  wagon,  showing  that 
the  family  got  their  drinking-water  from  the  creek, — verdict, 
without  retiring,  "Old  Texan." 

Between  these  extremes  will  be  found  farmers  from  other 
States  and  of  other  nationalities. 

As  we  entered  the  suburbs  of  New  Braunfels,  the  stage- 
driver  tightened  his  reins,  pushed  his  hat  back  on  his  head,  and 
gave  a  yell,  that,  in  intensity  and  hideousness,  I  did  not  think 
was  within  the  compass  of  the  human  voice. 

"  What  does  this  vocal  demonstration  mean  ? "  said  the  doctor. 

"Just  want  to  let  the Dutch  know  I  am  coming,"  said 

the  driver. 

A  quiet,  sleepy  town  is  New  Braunfels,  —  the  business- 
houses  all  on  one  street.  The  residences,  mostly  one-story  cot- 
tages surrounded  by  flowers,  shade-trees,  and  cabbages,  are 
scattered  around  in  no  very  regular  order.  Robust  and  phleg- 
matic Teutons  sit  in  the  shade,  and  smoke  enormous  china 
pipes.  Yellow-haired  girls  and  matrons  are  to  be  seen  through 
every  open  window ;  and  a  most  astonishing  number  of  blue- 
eyed,  tow-headed  children  are  playing  everywhere  in  sight. 
All  the  signs  on  the  stores  bear  German  names  ;  and  the  grocer 
does  not  call  himself  a  grocer,  but  hides  his  occupation  under 
the  guise  of  a  terrible  German  word  that  seems,  when  pro- 
nounced, as  if  it  came  up  from  the  hollow  of  the  speaker's 
legs.  All  around  we  hear  the  gutteral  sounds  of  the  German 
language,  until  I  get  a  sore  throat  listening  to  it. 


394 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


Down  below  the  town,  as  we  sat  on  the  banks  of  the  beauti- 
ful Comal  River,  and  listened  to  the  monotonous  grind  of  the 
old  mill-wheel,  the  somnolent  sound  of  the  water  rippling  over 
the  weir,  and,  from  among  the  vines  on  the  other  side,  the 
words  of  one  of  the  songs  of  Fatherland  sung  by  an  unseen 
German  maiden,  and  sounding  like  a  joyous  echo,  we  were 
carried  back  in  imagination  to  the  long-ago,  when  we  floated 
down  the  Rhine,  and,  in  youthful  ignorance,  believed  that  life 
was  a  delightful  romance. 

Returning  to  the  hotel,  we  met  a  large,  coarse,  blustering 
fellow,  evidently  a  native  American,  who  had  apparently  been 

drinking.  He  was  shouting 
in  a  loud  voice.  He  said  that 
a  very  small  consideration  or 
aggravation  would  induce 
him  to  "lick  daylight  out  of 
every  son  of  a  gun  of  a  Dutch- 
man in  town."  He  became 
especially  warlike  when  he 
spoke  of  one  Schneider.  He 
said  he  wanted  some  one  to 
tie  one  of  his  hands  behind 
his  back,  and  then  bring  on 
Schneider.  He  stated  that 
he  would  like  to  "  warm  "  the 
Dutchman  for  about  two 

minutes,  and  then  he  spoke  in  harsh  terms  of  Schneider's 
ancestry.  As  he  proceeded  with  his  harangue,  a  small,  fat 
German,  wearing  a  pair  of  spectacles,  stepped  up  in  front  of 
him,  and  said,  — 

"  Vas  you  saying  somedings  apout  Schneider  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  was,  by !  and  by !  I  would  like  to  handle 

the scoundrel  for  a  few  minutes,  by !     But  he  knows 

better  than  to  fool  with  me,  by !  " 

The  little  German  took  off  his  spectacles,  and  laid  them  on 
a  window-sill ;  and  then,  so  quick  that  you  could  hardly  see  the 
motion  of  his  arm,  he  hit  the  profane  man  on  the  mouth,  and 
felled  him  to  the  ground.  When  the  man  arose,  wiped  the 


HE     HAD     BEEN     SAYING     "SOMEDINGS     APOUT 
SCHNEIDER." 


DOT  FELLOW  TALKS  APOUT  SCHNEIDER."     395 


blood  from  his  mouth,  and  propped  up  his  front  teeth,  he  rushed 
at  the  little  man ;  but,  before  he  had  time  to  strike  a  blow,  he 
found  himself  again  in  the  gutter.  When  he  got  up,  his  nose 
looked  as  if  a  wagon-wheel  had  passed  over  it.  He  wiped  the 
battered  ruin  with  his  sleeve,  and  said  to  the  German,  — 

"  Now,  I  don't  want  no  fuss  with  you  :  so  you  had  better  not 
fool  with  me.  I  have  nothing  agin  you ;  but,  if  you  don't  drop 
it,  you  will  get  hurt." 

"  I  vas  not  much  scared  yet.  Off  you  vas  not  tired  already, 
I  giffs  you  some  more."  And  he  struck  at  the  big  man,  but 
missed  him,  as  he  dodged  into  a  drug-store. 

While  the  little  man  was  adjusting  his  spectacles  on  his 
nose,  a  friend  of  his  came  along,  and  asked  him  what  the  row 
was  about.  "  Nodings  ;  but  dot  fellow,  he  talks  apout  Schnei- 
der too  much  already." 

To  the  landlord  I  expressed  my  surprise  at  the  temerity  of 
the  small  German  attacking  a  man  so  much  larger  than  himself. 

"  I  reckon  he  knew  the  mule,"  was  the  landlord's  laconic 
answer. 

It  is  an  acknowledged  fact  that  the  Germans  are  the  most 
law-abiding  citizens  in  Texas.  Although  they  never  let  beer 
grow  old  or  infirm  in  their  possession,  yet,  even  on  the  most 
festive  occasions,  they  seldom  get  drunk,  and  still  more  rarely 


quarrel.  I  attended  the  German  annual  volksfest  when  I  was 
in  Houston.  It  was  quite  a  jubilee,  and  a  vast  quantity  of  beer 
was  consumed ;  but  the  only  Germans  whose  names  I  noticed 
as  being  before  the  recorder  next  morning  were  Patrick  Maloney 
and  Michael  McSweeney. 


396  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

The  New  Braunfels  people  own  a  woollen-factory,  — the  only 
one  in  Texas,  and  probably  the  only  one  in  the  South. 

The  Comal  River  is  prepared  to  supply  almost  unlimited  water- 
power.  The  country  around  can  supply  the  wool  and  cotton ; 
and  it  is  certain,  that,  sooner  or  later,  New  Braunfels  will  be  a 
manufacturing  city. 

A  very  large  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  of  Western  Texas 
are  Germans,  or  of  German  descent.  They  are  a  most  indus- 
trious and  desirable  class  of  citizens.  They  have  brought  over 
all  their  old  German  pastimes  and  amusements,  and  working 
about  fourteen  hours  a  day  is  one  of  them.  While  the  Texas- 
American  has  gradually  succeeded  in  overcoming  his  aversion 
to  lager-beer,  his  prejudice  against  working  very  hard  in  the 
field  between  meals  still  exists.  The  German  from  the  old 
country  could  not  stop  working,  even  if  he  were  to  make  every 
effort  to  do  so.  His  ancestors  for  a  thousand  years  have 
worked  harder  than  people  in  this  country  have  any  idea  of, 
and  he  has  inherited  the  industrious  disposition  of  his  fore- 
fathers in  his  bones.  His  children  born  in  the  United  States 
have  not  got  it  in  such  a  malignant  form  :  they  only  suffer 
from  industry  in  a  mild  type.  They  can  leave  off  work  when- 
ever they  feel  like  it.  The  next  generation  will  probably  im- 
bibe the  prejudices  of  the  natives,  and  refuse  to  do  any  thing 
like  hard  work,  except  on  extraordinary  occasions  —  at  a  bil- 
liard-table, or  in  a  base-ball  field.  But  the  original  German 
works  as  if  his  eternal  salvation  depended  on  it.  In  Germany, 
with  the  exception  of  the  wealthy  classes,  it  is  either  work  or 
starve,  with  the  odds  slightly  in  favor  of  starving.  It  is  almost 
impossible  for  a  poor  man  in  Germany  to  rise  above  the  station 
he  was  born  in.  Any  attempt  to  do  so  is  regarded  by  the 
upper  classes  as  an  impertinence,  and  resented  accordingly. 
In  fact,  it  is  contrary  to  law  for  a  man  to  attempt  to  improve 
his  condition.  What  is  his  condition  for,  if  not  that  he  should 
remain  in  it,  at  least  until  he  dies  ?  If,  for  instance,  a  man  is 
born  a  peasant,  his  only  chance  to  rise  in  life  is  to  be  blown  up 
by  a  bombshell  in  fighting  the  king's  enemies.  If  he  is  born 
poor,  he  remains  poor.  The  poor  man,  by  working  hard  day 
and  night,  and  going  without  some  of  his  meals,  may  be  able 


FRITZ  SCHIMMELPFENIG. 


397 


to  hold  his  own  in  that  station  of  life  in  which  it  has  pleased 
Providence  to  call  him,  and  the  government  to  keep  him.  Now, 
when  a  man  raised  under  these  circumstances  is  transplanted 
to  a  fertile  Texas  prairie,  where  he  is  not  required  to  support 
an  emperor  with  his  expensive  family,  and  a  standing  army  of 
a  million  beside  himself,  he  falls  right  into  the  lap  of  wealth. 
No  matter  what  business  he 
may  go  into,  he  is  bound  to 
succeed.  By  degrees  he  be- 
comes  Americanized  ;  he 
becomes  a  man  of  influence, 
and  is  courted  and  flattered 
by  politicians  —  they  cannot 
act  without  his  views.  In 
Germany  the  government 
managed  to  get  along  very 
well  without  his  views.  In 
America,  prominent  officials 
and  great  men  sometimes 
shake  hands,  and  converse 
familiarly  with  him.  In  the 
old  country,  the  highest  offi- 
cial that  was  ever  familiar  with 
him  was  the  drill-sergeant, 
who  punctuated  his  remarks 
with  a  ramrod,  or  the  butt- 
end  of  a  musket.  He  may 
have  received  other  atten- 
tions (they  were  not  of  a 
character  to  make  him  for- 
get them),  but  he  did  not 
care  to  brag  much  of  them 

afterward.  Such,  at  least,  were  the  experiences  of  Fritz  Schim- 
melpfenig,  whose  acquaintance  we  made  in  San  Antonio.  Fritz 
had  become  naturalized.  When  there  was  some  celebration 
connected  with  the  Odd-Fellows'  Lodge,  of  which  he  was  a 
bright  and  shining  light,  Fritz  would  dazzle  people  with  his 
regalia.  There  was  nothing  in  his  life  in  Germany  similar  to- 


FRITZ    SCHIMMELPFENIG. 


398  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

this,  that  he  could  remember.  The  only  time  that  he  had  any 
thing  to  do  with  a  lodge  there,  was  when  he  was  lodged  in 
jail  for  killing  an  imperial  rabbit  that  was  depredating  in  his 
father's  field.  His  connection  with  the  San  Antonio  Lodge 
gave  him  importance  and  influence  in  society.  Notwithstand- 
ing all  this,  Fritz  yearned  to  return  to  the  old  country,  in  the 
hope  of  enjoying  life  there,  and  at  last  of  laying  his  bones  in 
the  old  graveyard.  His  principal  object,  to  tell  the  whole 
truth,  was  not  so  much  to  enjoy  the  peace  and  quiet  of  the 
village  graveyard,  as  it  was  to  humiliate  the  aristocracy,  who 
had  not  recognized  his  merits  as  they  should  have  done.  So 
Fritz  returned  to  his  native  village  in  grand  style.  He  was 
dressed  in  broadcloth,  and  wore  a  heavy  gold  watch  and  chain. 
This  was  intended  to  awe,  and,  perhaps,  partially  paralyze,  the 
aristocracy,  if  he  got  a  fair  chance  at  them,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  make  his  former  townsmen  of  the  peasant  class  envious. 
He  arrived  at  Kirschwappel  in  due  time.  As  he  had  not 
telegraphed  that  he  was  coming,  he  was  not  surprised  when  he 
failed  to  perceive  any  vast  concourse  of  joyous  burghers  com- 
ing out  with  a  brass  band  and  garlands  to  greet  him.  He  did 
expect,  however,  after  his  friends  should  recognize  him,  to  be 
entirely  surprised  by  a  serenade,  and  was  somewhat  astonished 
that  he  was  permitted  to  go  to  sleep  at  a  hotel  on  the  night  of 
his  arrival.  He  discovered  that  he  was  a  perfect  stranger. 
The  only  man  who  recognized  him,  and  who  seemed  really  glad 
to  see  him  again,  was  the  innkeeper,  who  produced  an  unpaid 
bill  for  two  dollars'  worth  of  beer,  he  owed  in  the  days  of  his 
boyhood.  Every  thing  looked  small  to  him,  and  he  looked 
small  to  everybody.  The  peasants  did  not  rally  around  him  as 
if  he  were  a  flag.  They  imagined  his  sole  object  in  travelling 
all  the  way  back  across  the  water  was  to  convince  them  how 
much  better  he  was  than  they  were.  He  showed  a  brutal  in- 
difference to  their  sensitive  feelings  by  wearing  a  big  diamond 
breastpin,  which  they  imagined  was  real.  The  fact  that  he 
used  a  pocket-handkerchief  added  fearfully  to  the  smothering 
fire  of  indignation.  He  fared  better,  however,  at  the  hands  of 
the  postmaster,  the  burgomaster,  and  some  of  the  other  village 
aristocracy,  who  forgave  him  for  being  a  peasant  originally. 


PARALYZING    THE  ARISTOCRACY. 


399 


The  reason  they  cultivated  him  was  the  delight  they  experi- 
enced in  listening  to  his  tales  of  American  life  and  manners, 
all  of  which  they  believed  to  be  stupendous  lies.  He  told 
them,  that,  on  the  previous  Fourth  of  July,  he  rode  at  the  head 
of  the  procession  as  grand  marshal,  which  was  a  fact.  They 
punched  one  another  in  the  ribs,  and  said,  "Let  us  see  how  big 
a  lie  he  can  tell  if  he  is  let  alone."  Fritz  told  of  congressmen 
he  had  known  and  drank  with ;  and  then  they  laughed,  and 


I 


FRWZ   AND   THE    VILLAGE    ARISTOCRACY    IN    GERMANY. 

said  America  was  a  wonderful  country.  "  Doubtless,  you  are 
personally  acquainted  with  the  President,"  said  the  burgo- 
master. 

"  Certainly.     I  had  quite  a  long  talk  with  President  Grant." 
"  You  offered  him  a  cigar,  didn't  you  ? "  said  one,  who  was 
anxious  to  see  if  there  was  any  limit  to  Fritz's  flights  of  men- 
dacity. 

"  I  gave  Gen.  Grant  a  whole  box  of  cigars  when  he  was  in 
San  Antonio.  He  told  m6  they  were  equal  to  those  presented 
to  him  by  the  emperor  when  he  was  in  Berlin." 


400  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Then  they  applauded  and  laughed  as  if  they  were  crazy. 
The  idea  that  Fritz  should  be  hobnobbing  with  Gen.  Grant, 
who  was  once  the  guest  of  Bismarck  and  William,  was  too  pre- 
posterous. At  last  Fritz  lost  patience  with  them.  They 
shocked  him  with  their  rude  manners.  He  yearned  to  get 
back  to  his  lodge,  or  to  sit  in  a  jury-box  and  find  somebody 
guilty  of  something.  It  was  not  very  long  before  he  discovered 
that  the  dear  old  vaterland  was  too  small  and  circumscribed  to 
hold  him.  He  said  as  much  one  day  in  a  saloon,  supplementing 
the  same  with  the  remark  that  the  country  would  never  amount 
to  any  thing  until  Germany  became  a  republic.  He  had  no 
cause  to  complain,  after  that,  of  not  receiving  any  attention  ; 
for  he  was  arrested  the  same  night,  and  confined  in  jail. 
After  a  long  examination,  he  was  sent  to  Berlin,  where  he  was 
condemned  to  two  years'  imprisonment  with  hard  labor.  It 
required  a  great  deal  of  red  tape  and  persuasion,  on  the  part  of 
the  American  consul,  to  obtain  his  release.  It  was  only  by  per- 
suading the  authorities  that  Fritz  was  subject  to  periodic  attacks 
of  idiocy,  that  his  release  was  obtained  ;  which  was  only  granted 
on  condition  that  he  leave  Germany  within  twenty-four  hours. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  Fritz  did  not  linger  around 
the  old  graveyard  where  he  had  expected  to  lay  his  bones.  In 
fact,  the  one  object  of  his  life  was  now  to  get  out  of  the  ac- 
cursed country.  So,  taking  his  bones  with  him,  he  returned  to 
San  Antonio. 

Many  of  the  original  German  settlers  were  men  of  the  high- 
est education  and  culture.  Some  of  these  immigrants  were  in 
comfortable  circumstances  at  home,  but  they  could  not  stand 
the  suffocating  atmosphere  of  the  Old-World  despotism. 

It  is  difficult  to  praise  the  Germans  of  Western  Texas  too 
much.  They  have  made  the  country  what  it  is.  They  furnish 
a  very  small  contingent  to  the  criminal  classes,  while  they  pay 
a  very  heavy  percentage  of  the  taxes,  altogether  out  of  pro- 
portion to  their  numbers.  They  educate  their  children  at  their 
own  expense  when  the  State  refuses  to  do  it.  They  respect 
the  rights  of  others,  and  rowdyism  is  almost  unknown  in  the 
German  settlements. 


THE  RED-FACED  MAN. 


401 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 


ETURNING  from  New  Braun- 
fels,  we  had  five  inside  passen- 
gers in  the  stage,  besides  the 
reporter,  the  doctor,  and  my- 
self. All,  with  one  exception, 
were  Texas  stockmen,  dressed 
in  the  rough  costume  of  their 
class.  The  exception  was  a  red- 
faced  man  attached  to  an  im- 
mense scarf-pin,  and  accompa- 
nied by  a  very  tall  stovepipe  hat. 
The  red-faced  man  was  a  drum- 
mer for  a  soap-manufacturing  firm  in  St.  Louis. 
He  had  only  arrived  in  Texas  the  day  before. 
His  high  opinion  of  his  own  smartness,  and 
his  faith  in  the  superior  qualities  of  his  soap, 
were  only  equalled  in  extent  by  his  credulity, 
and  by  his  consuming  thirst  for  information 
He  was  brimful,  and  running  over,  with  ques- 
tions. They  came  out  of  him  in  a  torrent,  only  broken  by  an 
occasional  severe  jolt  of  the  stage.  The  other  passengers 
seemed  to  understand  the  character  of  the  red-faced  man  at 
once,  and  answered  his  multitudinous  questions  regarding  Mexi- 
cans, Indians,  etc.,  with  frugal  economy  in  the  matter  of  truth. 
They  stared  at  his  hat  with  such  persistence,  gazed  at  it  with 
so  much  interest,  and  evidently  spoke  to  each  other  of  it  in 
whispers,  that  the  red-faced  man  was  confused,  but  said  nothing 
regarding  what  he  supposed  to  be  illustrative  of  Texas  man- 
ners. After  a  while,  a  tall,  lank  stockman,  in  a  blue  shirt,  and 
26 


regarding  Texas. 


402  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

clothed  as  to  his  legs  in  goatskin  overalls,  leaned  forward,  and, 
putting  his  hand  on  the  drummer's  knee,  said,  — 

"  You  ain't  going  to  San  Antonio,  are  you,  stranger  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir,  I'm  going  to  San  Antonio." 

The  stockman  looked  around  at  his  friends,  and  from  one  to 
the  other,  with  a  pained,  pitying  look.  After  a  pause,  another 
passenger  addressed  the  red-faced  man,  and  said,  — 

"  Did  I  understand  you  to  say  that  you  were  going  to  San 
Antonio  ? " 

"  Yes,  sir ;  and,  unless  some  accident  happens,  I  expect  to 
get  there  to-night." 

The  stockmen  whispered  together,  casting  anxious  glances 
all  over  the  drummer's  person,  but  did  not  pursue  the  subject. 

At  the  first  station  where  we  stopped  to  change  horses,  one 
of  the  hostlers,  evidently  posted  by  the  gaunt  man  in  the  goat- 
skin pants,  approached  the  soap-vender,  and  said,  — 

"  Excuse  me,  colonel,  for  making  so  free  ;  but  you  ain't  going 
to  San  Antonio,  are  you  ? " 

"  Yes,  sir,  I  am.  And,  by  George !  why  shouldn't  I  go  to 
San  Antonio  ? " 

"  O  Lord ! "  was  all  the  man  said  by  way  of  answer,  as  he 
braced  himself  up  against  a  water-tank,  and  gazed  compassion- 
ately on  the  red-faced  man  from  St.  Louis  until  the  stage  started. 

At  the  next  stage-stand  a  negro  surveyed  him  curiously, 
and,  after  walking  around  him  twice,  said,  "  Boss,  ye  ain't  gwine 
to*  San  Antonio,  is  yer,  fur  a  fac'  ? "  And,  when  he  was  an- 
swered in  the  affirmative,  an  Irish  hostler  was  heard  to  exclaim, 
"  Poor  divil !  An'  I  don't  suppose  he  has  a  frind  to  spake  a 
word  for  him.  They  won't  aven  give  him  time  to  say  a  pater 
an'  ave" 

The  drummer  climbed  into  the  stage,  feeling  mystified,  and 
was  evidently  beginning  to  get  nervous.  At  this  point  a  small 
boy  climbed  up  to  the  window,  as  the  stage  started,  singled  the 
drummer  out,  and  stared  at  him  with  that  concentration  of  gaze 
that  small  boys  apply  to  the  elephant  in  a  circus-procession, 
and  began,  "  Mister,  you  ain't  go "  —  A  small  boy  rolled  in 
the  mud,  and  the  soapman  turned  excitedly  to  his  fellow-trav- 
ellers :  — 


"FOR  HEAVEN'S  SAKE,   EXPLAIN  YOURSELF J"    403 

"Gentlemen,  this  is  the  most —  What  in  thunder  is  the 
matter,  anyhow?  The  people  seem  surprised  because  I'm 
going  to  San  Antonio.  Do  gentlemen  never  travel  in  these 
old  second-hand  hearses  ? " 

"  No,"  replied  the  tall  stockman  :  "  it  ain't  that." 

"  Well,  what  is  it  ?     You  ain't  afraid  to  go  ? " 


"FOR    HEAVEN'S    SAKE,    EXPLAIN    YOURSELF!" 


"No,  sir,  I'm  not  afraid.  But,  if  I  were  you,  I'd  be  —  well, 
I'd  be  apprehensive  of  annoying  contingencies." 

"  For  Heaven's  sake,  explain  yourself ! "  said  the  now  thor- 
oughly frightened  stranger. 

"  Look  here,  partner,  to  cut  the  matter  short,  I  wouldn't  be 
in  your  boots,  or  rather  your  hat,  and  walk  into  the  Main  Plaza 
in  San  Antonio  —  not,  sir,  for  the  biggest  ranch  west  of  the 
Guadaloupe.  Ten  minutes  after  you  reach  the  Alamo,  your 
wife  may  be  a  widow.  No,  sir !  I  would  not  give  a  sick  calf 


404  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

for  all  the  soap  you  will  ever  sell  afterwards.  Perhaps  you  do 
not  understand  me.  You  are  a  stranger  here,  and  don't  know 
the  inhabitants.  Now,  let  me  tell  you,  as  a  friend,  the  San- 
Antonians  are  a  simple,  pastoral  people.  They  were  raised  far 
away  from  railroads  and  the  enervating  influences  of  public 
schools.  They  are  ignorant  of  guile  and  fashionable  follies  — 
not  bigoted  in  any  way ;  but  they  are  down  on  style.  They 
will  stand  almost  any  thing  but  that.  San  Antonio  is  a  land 
of  liberty  in  all  but  one  thing, — the  people  cannot  bear  the 
sight  of  a  plug  hat.  They  won't  have  'em.  A  plug  hat  has 
the  same  effect  on  a  San-Antonian  that  a  red  shawl  has  on  a 
wild  bull.  You  may  go  through  the  street  barefooted,  and  no- 
body will  notice  you ;  you  may  cavort  around,  dressed  like  a 
Chinee,  and  they  won't  much  more  than  throw  a  rock  or  two 
at  you ;  you  might  even  paint  yourself,  and  go  without  clothes, 
and  it  wouldn't  excite  comment :  but  just  walk  into  town  with 
that  hat  on,  and —  The  Lord  help  you  !  A  bull-fight  wouldn't 
be  a  circumstance  to  it.  I  tell  you,  sir,  the  consequences  of 
blind  prejudice  are  terrible." 

The  red-faced  man  was  now  almost  in  an  hysterical  condition. 
He  offered  to  "swop  even  "  with  the  driver,  who  wore  a  twenty- 
five-cent  sombrero.  The  driver  declined  the  trade.  He  then 
turned  for  advice  to  his  fellow-travellers.  He  got  no  end  of 
advice ;  and  to-day  there  are  men  alive  to  prove  that  they  saw 
him  alight  from  the  stage  in  the  Alamo  Plaza,  in  San  Antonio, 
and  sneak  into  the  Menger  Hotel,  with  his  hat  concealed  in  a 
linen  duster  under  his  arm,  and  with  a  handkerchief  tied  around 
his  head. 

San  Antonio  is  the  largest  wool-and-hide  market  in  Texas. 
More  than  a  million  pounds  of  wool  are  sold  annually  in  San 
Antonio,  and  shipped  to  the  Eastern  States.  There  are  no 
woollen-mills  in  San  Antonio.  One  was  started,  but  did  not 
pay.  The  following  account  of  it  I  found  in  a  local  paper :  — 

HEAVY    TRANSACTION    IN    WOOL. 

Two  negroes  in  the  employment  of  Berg  &  Brother  recently  went  into 
business  on  their  own  account.  They  had  very  little  capital,  but  plenty  of 
pluck ;  and  some  of  their  white  friends  encouraged  them.  They  started  on 


THE  SENTIMENTAL    TOURIST. 


405 


Acquia  Street  a  mill,  combined  with  a  wool-combing  establishment.  The 
first  lot  of  wool  they  had  to  handle  was  dark  wool,  short  staple ;  and,  what 
is  quite  singular,  they  raised  it  themselves  on  their  own  heads,  in  the  place 
where  the  wool  ought  to  grow.  In  handling  this  wool  they  not  only  used 
their  own  hands,  but  also  cotton-hooks,  clubs,  etc.  It  is  not  thought  the 
partnership  will  be  a  success,  as  the  recorder's  charges  are  too  high  to 
make  it  profitable.  Our  local  authorities  offer  no  encouragement  whatever 
to  home  industry.  But 
this  shows  what  the 
negro  can  do  in  the 
South  if  he  tries. 

I  met  a  tourist 
at  the  hotel.  He 
said  the  people  of 
San  Antonio  had 
no  sentiment,  and 
they  did  not  ap- 
preciate their  ro- 
mantic surround- 
ings. His  fi  r  s  t 
day's  experience 
in  the  city  was  so 
like  mine  that  it 
refreshed  me  very 
much  to  hear  him 
relate  it.  It  seems 
that  he  arrived  in 
the  evening,  and 
was  up  early  next 
morning  to  muse 
at  the  shrine  of  Texas  independence.  He  was  of  a  poetic  turn 
of  mind,  and  longed  to  drop  a  tear  or  so  at  the  local  Ther- 
mopylae. 

In  the  middle  of  the  Alamo  Plaza  there  is  a  small  stone  build- 
ing, wonderfully  plain  and  unattractive.  The  tourist  saw  this 
building ;  and,  observing  people  going  in  and  out,  he  concluded 
that  that  was  the  veritable  Thermopylae  itself,  and  that  the 
people  were  going  to  their  morning  weep.  He  accosted  a 
native,  and  asked  if  the  people  went  there  to  muse. 


WOOL-RAISING    IN    SAN    ANTONIO. 


406 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


"Muse  —  the  devil!"   was   the   heathen  reply.     "They  go 
there  for  grub." 

"  Is  not  that  the  sacred  spot  where  the  inhuman  butchery  of 
the  heroic  Texans  took  place  ?  " 

"  That's  the  Alamo  Market ;  but  the  butchery,  stranger,  where 
the  killing  is  done,  is  a  mile  out  of  town.     I  want  you  to  under- 
stand this  is  a  city." 

Across  the  street  he  saw 
a  sign,  "  Alamo  Store."  He 
stepped  in,  and  asked  the 
proprietor  if  Travis  and 
Crockett  had  fallen  near 
there. 

"  I  cannot  say  dot.  I 
schoost  corned  back  from 
de  bost-office.  Mebbe  some 
one  failed  down  vile  I  vash 
gone,"  was  the  discouraging 
reply. 

"  I  mean,  is  this  the  old 
Alamo,  where  Travis  and 
his  heroes  fell  ?  " 

A  gleam  of  intelligence 
lighted  up  the  features  of 
the  merchant.  There  was  speculation  in  his  eye,  as  he  replied, 
"  Dish  ish  de  store  vere  dey  buyed  all  dere  ready-mate  clodings, 
sheep  for  cash."  And,  before  the  bewildered  pilgrim  could 
reply,  he  had  on  an  overcoat  that  fitted  him  "  schoost  like  you 
vas  porn  mit  it  on." 

He  came  out  with  the  overcoat  on.  The  merchant  wanted 
twenty-seven  dollars,  but  came  down  two  dollars  and  six  bits, 
out  of  regard  to  the  sacred  memories  brooding  over  the  Alamo. 
Our  pilgrim  was  not  discouraged.  Wherever  he  saw  the  im- 
mortal word  ALAMO,  there  he  entered  in.  Having  visited  five 
Alamo  saloons,  two  policemen  conducted  him  to  the  lock-up, 
which,  by  the  irony  of  circumstances,  was  actually  one  of  the 
rooms  in  the  Alamo  building  itself.  Otherwise  he  never  would 
have  found  it,  unless  he  had  been  aware  of  the  fact  that  it  was 


A   CLOSE    FIT. 


RAINING  EMPLOYEES  AND  TIN  DINNER-PAILS.     407 


the  only  building  in  that  part  of  town  that  did  not  have  the 
word  "Alamo  "  plastered  on  it  as  big  as  a  circus-poster. 

The  quartermaster's  depot  is  aboufamile  from  town — when 
the  roads  are  not  knee-deep  in  mud.  There  are  quite  a  large 
number  of  employees  who  live  in  town,  and  who  go  to  and  from 
the  depot  in  a  large  wagon,  the  propelling-power  of  which  is 
two  mules  full  of  oats  and  energy.  The  wagon  is  usually 
crowded  with  as  many  employees  as  can  get  in.  While  in 
San  Antonio,  I  often  noticed  that  wagon  dash  past,  and  won- 
dered how  long  it  would  be  before  something  unusual  would 
have  to  be  recorded.  It  was  too  full  not  to  spill,  sooner  or 
later.  One  evening  I  saw  the  wagon,  filled  with  employees, 
closely  pur- 
suing the 
two  mules 
near  the  de- 
pot. Each 
employee 
wore  a 
thoughtful 
expression 
of  counte- 
nance, not 
being  pre- 
cisely unan- 
imous as  to 
which  was 
the  proper 
thing  to  do, 
—  to  jump 
out,  or  stay 
in.  The 

mules  were  not  a  bit  tired,  and  there  was  really  no  occasion  to 
get  out  and  walk.  All  at  once,  one  of  the  wheels  struck  what 
the  San  Antonio  "Express"  calls  an  " abruption,"  —  a  hole  in 
the  ground  I  suppose,  or  a  stump;  and  just  about  that  time, 
with  singular  unanimity,  all  hands  concluded  to  relieve  the 
poor,  over-worked  mules  by  getting  out.  For  a  minute  and  a 


RAINING    EMPLOYEES    AND    TIN    DINNER-PAILS. 


408  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

half  it  rained  employees  and  tin  dinner-pails.  Some  went  up 
so  high  that  they  afterwards  stated  they  could  see  the  mort- 
ages  on  the  business-houses  in  Houston.  Fortunately,  nobody 
was  killed.  They  could  not  do  it  again  without  a  mortuary 
report  as  long  as  a  man's  arm.  While  the  thus  suddenly  dis- 
charged employees  were  fondling  sprained  ankles,  and  wishing 
for  more  hands  with  which  to  rub  places  they  could  not  reach 
conveniently,  the  mules  rushed  on,  until  they  succeeded  in 
finding  something  to  smash  up  the  wagon  on.  People  living 
near  where  the  wagon  exploded  against  a  tree  said  they  would 
not  need  to  buy  any  kindling-wood  for  the  next  six  months. 
The  mules  did  not  sustain  any  injury  whatever. 

While  we  were  in  San  Antonio,  the  grand  jury  was  in  session. 
I  do  not  like  to  say  that  they  were  a  noble-looking  body  of  men, 
but  they  might  have  looked  worse.  When  we  left,  they  had 
found  some  twenty  indictments  for  horse-stealing,  and  had  not 
begun  on  murders  and  other  minor  felonies. 

The  San  Antonio  people  say  there  is  something  wrong  about 
the  grand-jury  system.  They  cannot  understand  why  the  horse- 
thief  and  incendiary  find  it  profitable  to  move  out  West  when 
the  grand  jury  is  in  session,  while  the  sewing-machine  agent 
and  the  old  veteran  are  still  at  large,  and  pursue  their  avocations 
without  fear. 

The  people  are  opposed  to  the  grand-jury  system,  not  because 

"  No  thief  e'er  felt  the  halter  draw, 
With  good  opinion  of  the  law," 

but  because  it  savors  too  much  of  the  old  Spanish  regime. 
The  good  old  days  when  a  man  could  be  taken  to  pieces  by 
machinery,  to  see  whether  he  was  guilty  or  not,  have  passed 
away ;  but  his  reputation  can  still  be  crucified  and  mutilated  in 
the  most  approved  legal  form.  In  San  Antonio  there  is  prob- 
ably some  limit  to  this  power  of  evil,  but  out  in  the  frontier 
settlements  there  is  no  telling  what  a  grand  jury  will  not  do. 

Once  upon  a  time,  a  frontier's-man  came  to  town  to  live,  and 
in  due  time  got  on  the  grand  jury.  The  very  first  day  the  jury 
convened,  he  got  up  and  proposed  to  have  Judge  K.,  one  of  the 
oldest  and  most  respected  citizens,  indicted. 


THE  MISSION  SAN  JOSE  409 

"  What  is  he  to  be  indicted  for  ? "  asked  the  foreman. 

"  Horse-thievin',  I  reckon  ;  but,  if  you  think  that  won't  stick, 
murder  or  forgery  will  do  —  something  that'll  sorter  take  the 
starch  out  of  him." 

"  When  was  he  guilty  of  these  crimes  ?  "  asked  the  foreman. 

"  Damfino  ! "  was  the  response.  "  But  he  ought  to  be  in- 
dicted. He  puts  on  too  much  style,  anyhow.  If  he  ain't  guilty, 
let  him  prove  it.  That's  the  way  we  did  where  I  used  to  live. 
We  allers  used  to  take  up  private  grievances  first ;  and,  by  the 
time  we  got  through,  we  had  to  go  outside  of  the  county  to 
find  material  to  work  on." 

The  rural  member  was  suppressed,  and  ever  after  expressed 
his  opinion  that  the  system  was  a  humbug ;  that  the  grand  jury- 
man had  no  influence  in  such  a  community,  nobody  looked  up 
to  him  and  reverenced  him  as  they  did  where  the  jury  attended 
to  business  as  it  should. 

When  we  were  ready  to  bid  good-by  to  San  Antonio,  we 
drove  out  to  see  the  missions.  The  ruins  of  four  of  the  old 
Spanish  missions  are  on  the  San  Antonio  River,  near  San 
Antonio,  —  La  Purissima  Concepcion,  two  miles  below  the  city  ; 
San  Jose,  four  miles ;  San  Juan  de  Capistran,  six  miles ;  and 
San  Francisco  de  la  Espada,  nine  miles  down  the  river.  We 
visited  only  the  first  two,  —  Concepcion  and  San  Jose.  Part  of 
the  latter  is  in  a  fair  state  of  preservation.  It  was  the  most 
beautiful  of  all  the  Texas  missions.  The  king  of  Spain  sent  a 
celebrated  Spanish  architect  and  sculptor,  named  Huizar,  to 
build  it.  The  greater  part  of  the  front  of  the  building  is  of 
native  white  marble :  beautifully  carved  statues,  more  than  life 
size,  of  the  Virgin  Mother  and  Child,  St.  Joseph,  St.  Gregory, 
and  St.  Peter,  adorn  the  front.  Huge  cedar  doors,  as  strong  as 
when  they  were  placed  on  their  hinges  two  hundred  years  ago, 
close  the  main  entrance.  These  doors  are  four  inches  thick, 
and  elaborately  carved.  Huizar,  the  sculptor,  did  much  of  the 
carving.  The  pocket-knife  of  the  modern  tourist  has  since  at- 
tended to  any  details  that  Huizar  left  unfinished. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  doctor,  as  he  climbed  up  on  a  heap  of  loose 
rocks,  and  peered  through  the  mullions  of  a  lanceolated  window, 
"  I  do  love  these  ancient  ruins  — 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


" '  We  never  tread  upon  them 
But  we  set  our  foot  upon 
Some  reverend  history.'  " 

Even  as  he  spoke,  some  of  the  "  reverend  history  "  rolled  from 
under  the  doctor's  feet,  and  he  lay  among  the  other  ruins  at  the 

foot  of  the  tower  of  San  Jose\  and 
concluded  his  quotations  with  some 
very  irreverent  remarks. 

I   stood  and  looked   at  the  im- 


mense ruin,   as  it  lay  bathed  in  the 

sunshine    of    a   summer   day,    and    I 

thought  of   the  scenes  enacted  there 

one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  —  the 

soldier  and  the  priest ;  the  sword  and 

the  crosier ;  the  Indios  Reducidos,  and  the  Indians  who  would 

not  be  reduced  ;  Brother  Antonio  in  the  church,  expounding  to 

the  squaws  and  old  worthless    Indians   the   true   faith,  while 

Brother  Francisco,  down  in  one  of  the  irrigating  ditches,  per- 


DOCTORS  DIFFER. 


411 


suades  the  able-bodied  converts  that  it  is  not  by  faith  alone,  but 
by  works  (internal  improvements  of  the  ditch  kind),  that  they 
may  expect  to  be  saved.  I  think  of  a  white  hunter  wandering 
through  Texas  in  those  days,  knowing  nothing  of  the  Spanish 
missions,  and  coming  suddenly  on  one  of  these  great  buildings 
on  the  wide  expanse  of  the  lonely  Texas  prairie.  Would  he 
believe  the  evidence  of  his  eyes  when  he  saw  the  saintly 
statues^the  sculptured  arches,  the  tame  Indians,  the  solemn- 
faced  padres,  and  the  gayly  uniformed  soldiers  ?  Would  he  not 
think  his  ears  were  bewitched  when  he  heard  the  vesper-hymn 
of  the  worshippers  in  church  mingle  with  the  merry  song  of 
the  happy  Indians  at  work  in  the  ditches,  while  all  the  time  he 
knew  that  the  whole  country  was  a  wilderness  for  hundreds  of 
miles  around  ?  Surely  he  would  think  that  some  enchantment 
had  been  wrought  upon  him. 

While  we  were  in  San  Antonio  there  was  a  very  sick  man 
lying  ill  in  the  hotel.  His  illness  seemed  so  dangerous,  that  his 
friends  did  not  think  one  doctor  could  encompass  it :  so  they 
telephoned  for  two  medical  men.  Dr.  Amos  Graves  and  Dr. 
Chew  responded.  What  passed  at  the  early  stages  of  the  pro- 
ceeding is  not  known,  and  will  probably  forever  remain  a  pro- 
found mystery.  From  what  we  can  gather,  however,  it  would 
seem  that  the  doctors  disagreed  about  the  mode  of  treatment  of 
the  patient ;  one  claiming  that  an  obstruction  in  the  subclavian 
artery  would  necessitate  the  sawing-off  of  the  patient's  leg, 
while  the  other  asserted  that  the  torpidity  of  the  sick  man's 
liver  would  require  lubricating  with  castor-oil,  or  some  other 
sedative.  Then  each  claimed  to  be  the  invalid's  family  doctor, 
and  insisted  that  he  was  competent  to  cure  the  man  without 
assistance.  From  words  they  came  to  blows.  Chew  was  hit  on 
the  lachrymal  gland  with  a  box  of  healing-ointment,  and  had  a 
tooth  knocked  out  by  a  green-colored  tonic.  According  to  the 
directions  on  the  bottle,  the  tonic  was  to  be  taken,  "  one  tea- 
spoonful  every  hour  in  a  wineglassful  of  water ; "'  but  the  old 
sanatorium1  who  used  it  as  a  weapon,  not  having  time  to  admin- 
ister it  in  broken  doses,  gave  his  rival  enough  to  tone  the  stom- 
ach of  an  ordinary  man  for  a  week,  and  gave  it  all  at  one  whack. 
Then  Chew  vaccinated  Graves  on  the  ear  with  a  box  of  Carbolic 


412 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


Salve,  and  raised  a  bump  over  his  orbicular  muscle  with  a  bottle 
of  Female  Bitters.  In  the  next  round  there  was  a  lively  inter- 
change of  Peruvian  Bark,  Mustang  Liniment  and  McLean's 
Blood-Purifier,  —  not  administered  because  there  was  bad  blood 
between  them,  but  merely  as  a  guaranty  of  good  faith. 

When  time  was  called  on  the  third  round,  Chew  advanced  on 
the  enemy,  armed  with  a  second-hand  Porous  Plaster  and  about 
a  pint  of  Pierce's  Purgative  • 

Pellets  ;  but,  before  he  had 
time  to  use  them,  Graves 
knocked  him  down  by  a 


.^     ^  ^ 


DOCTORS    DIFFER. 


well-directed  blow  on  the  base  of  his  ductus  arteriosus  with  a 
compound  cathartic  poultice  tied  up  in  a  towel. 

By  this  time  the  atmosphere,  for  blocks  around  the  scene  of 
the  conflict,  smelled  like  a  drug-store  with  a  barrel  of  assafoetida 
leaking  in  the  cellar,  and  a  piece  of  Limburger  cheese  on  the 
stove. 

The  police  were  out  following  up  "  a  clew  "  (a  favorite  pas- 
time of  the  guardians  of  our  homes  and  firesides).  As  they 


DOCTORS  DIFFER.  413 

passed  the  soap-factory,  they  smelled  the  battle  from  afar,  and, 
following  up  the  scent  as  it  floated  on  the  balmy  southern 
breeze,  they  arrived  in  time  to  separate  the  belligerents,  as 
Chew,  on  top  of  Graves,  was  in  the  act  of  pumping  some  dis- 
infectants into  him. 

Both  doctors  rilled  the  local  papers  with  cards  explanatory  of 
the  affair :  but  this  is  the  only  true  account  yet  written ;  and  I 
merely  mention  it  here,  that  I  may  benefit  suffering  humanity 
by  putting  the  people  of  this  country  on  their  guard,  and  warn- 
ing them  of  the  risk  they  run  when  they  are  sick  and  have  two 
doctors  in  attendance  on  them  at  the  same  time. 

One  doctor  is  dangerous  enough ;  but,  when  two  get  to  work 
on  a  sick  man,  the  surroundings  become  very  insalubrious.  It  is 
but  a  forlorn  hope  for  him.  The  danger  becomes  greater;  and 
the  chances  are  brilliant  that  he  will  have  a  crevasse  opened  in 
his  varicose  vein  by  a  stray  missile  from  the  hand  of  one  of  his 
medical  attendants,  while  his  diarthrodial  joint  may  be  knocked 
out  of  gear,  or  his  vascular  canal  stopped  up  by  a  flying  splinter 
from  a  strong-smelling  nostrum  intended  for  the  head  of  the 
doctor.  Or,  if  the  doctors  do  not  fight  among  themselves,  one  is 
likely  to  treat  the  patient  with  a  lung-pad,  to  reduce  the  swelling 
in  his  cartilaginous  epidermis,  while  the  other  will  argue  that 
what  the  patient  needs  is  to  have  a  tumor  sawed  out  of  the 
protoplasmic  cells  of  his  occipital  bone.  The  treatment  will  be 
about  as  fatal  in  one  case  as  the  other ;  for,  as  too  many  cooks 
spoil  the  broth,  even  so,  in  like  manner,  do  too  many  doctors  kill 
the  patient. 


414 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER     XXXII. 


ROM  the  missions  we  returned  to 
the  city  in  time  for  supper.  After 
exciting  the  wonder  of  the  waiter 
at  the  opulence  and  general  scope 
of  our  appetite,  we  lighted  our 
cigars,  and  took  chairs  in  front  of 
the  hotel  to  enjoy  the  fresh  even- 
ing breeze.  Our  talkative  friend 
of  the  press  was  already  on  the 
sidewalk. 

"Gentlemen,  don't  you  want  to 
go  down  to  Gonzales  with  me  in 
the  morning,  to  witness  the  Brown 
Bowen  performance  ?  You  won't 
have  another  such  chance." 

"  What  kind  of  a  performance 
is  it  ? " 

"  It  is  a  tight-rope  per- 
formance," explained  the  re- 
porter. 

The  doctor  said  he  did 
not  like  such  exhibitions, 
because  he  was  always  afraid  the  performer  would  fall,  and 
break  his  neck. 

"That  is  just  where  the  interest  in  this  thing  is.  The  tight- 
rope performer  day  after  to-morrow  will  break  his  neck  accord- 
ing to  law.  That  is  going  to  be  the  principal  feature  of  the 
exhibition." 

The  reporter  then  explained  that  a  noted  murderer,  named 


A   PROMINENT  DESPERADO.  415 

Brown  Bowen,  was  to  be  hung  at  Gonzales ;  that  he,  the  re- 
porter, was  to  be  present  in  an  official  capacity,  and  that  he 
would  be  pleased  to  have  us  accompany  him. 

"  Who  is  Brown  Bowen,  anyhow  ? "  asked  the  doctor. 

The  reporter  drew  up  his  chair,  failed  signally  to  reject  a 
cigar  that  was  offered  him,  and  gave  us  the  following  true  story 
of  Brown  Bowen  and  his  crime  :  — 

"  Brown  Bowen  is  a  rising  young  man,  who  was  bora  and 
raised  in  Gonzales  County.  He  has  been  in  a  number  of  fights 
that  resulted  disastrously  to  his  opponents.  If  he  had  not  been 
interfered  with  by  the  sheriff,  he  would  probably  have  become 
one  of  the  most  prominent  desperadoes  in  Texas.  He  is  a 
cousin  of  John  Wesley  Hardin,  who  is  accused  of-  having 
killed  upwards  of  twenty  men,  although  he  is  not  a  physician," 
said  the  reporter,  glancing  sideways  at  the  doctor. 

"Bowen  belonged  to  a  band  of  reckless  horse-thieves  and 
murderers.  Wesley  Hardin  was  a  sort  of  ex-officio  member. 

"On  the  1 9th  of  December,  1872,  they  held  a  re-union  at 
Billings's  Store,  in  DeWitt  County.  There  was  a  banquet, 
consisting  of  whiskey  and  oysters,  which  they  purchased  on 
time  from  the  storekeeper,  who  was  very  much  depressed  at 
the  extraordinary  run  of  custom.  The  object  of  the  meeting 
was  to  get  drunk,  and  transact  such  other  business  as  might 
come  up.  Among  them  was  Thomas  Halderman,  who  was  sus- 
pected by  the  others  of  not  being  a  genuine  horse-thief,  which 
circumstance  made  him  very  unpopular.  He  had  failed  to  give 
satisfactory  proof  of  ever  having  killed  any  one.  In  fact,  he 
was  a  kind  of  black  sheep.  But  when  it  came  to  drinking 
whiskey,  Halderman  looked  out  for  his  own  interests.  Every 
one  has  some  specialty  in  which  he  excels.  Quite  early  in  the 
day  he  was  carried  out,  and  left  reposing  under  the  shade  of  a 
tree.  The  others  kept  up  the  festivities,  consisting  of  pony- 
races  and  holding  the  stakes,  which  were  of  a  liquid  character. 
It  is  usual  at  these  entertainments  to  offer  up  at  least  one 
victim  ;  but,  some  how  or  other,  this  important  matter  (to  the 
victim)  was  entirely  overlooked  until  late  in  the  evening.  Per- 
haps they  were  waiting  for  a  stranger,  or  a  good  horse,  to  come 
along  the  road." 


416 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


"  Somebody  from  the  North,  travelling  for  his  health  and 
amusement,  as  we  are,"  observed  the  doctor  cynically. 

"The  sun,"  continued  the  journalist,  "was  gently  sinking  to 
rest  behind  the  western  prairies,  and  still  no  stranger  travelling 
for  his  health  had  been  directed  by  a  kind  Providence  to  the 
store  of  Billings. 

"  Bowen  left  the  store,  approached  the  drunken  man,  who 
still  lay  under  the  tree,  and  deliberately  shot  him  through  the 
head.  A  boy  named  Mac.  Billings,  who  was  coming  up  to  the 
store  leading  Bowen's  horse,  that  had  got  away,  was  a  witness 
to  the  foul  deed. 

" '  Here  is  your  hoss,  Col.  Bowen,'  said  the  boy. 
" '  That's  right,  sonny,'  responded  the  startled  Brown  Bowen. 
'Just  hitch  him  to  a  tree,  and  remember,  boys  of  your   size 
should  be  seen,  not  heard.     Don't  talk  too  much,  and  every- 
body will  respect  you.' 

"Bowen  returned  to  the  store,  where  for  several  hours  he 
was  the  gayest  of  the  gay.  But  the  little  boy  pondered  over 
these  things,  and  laid  them  up  in  his  mind ;  and,  when  he  sub- 
sequently got  a  chance  on  the  witness-stand,  he  told  his  story 
with  such  directness,  that  the  jury  found  the  prisoner  guilty  of 

murder  in  the  first  degree. 

"  Now  you  know  as  much  about 
it  as  I  do ;  but,  if  you  are  anxious 
to  witness  the  final  vindication  of 
the  law,  I'll  call  for  you  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  we  will  go  to  Gonzales  to- 
gether." 

"  How  was  it  that  he  was  not  tried 
sooner?"  asked  the  doctor. 

"  I  forgot  about  that.  Brown 
Bowen  was  arrested,  and  put  in  jail, 
at  which  he  was  very  much  chagrined.  His  friends  thought 
that  this  was  probably  a  mere  formality :  so  they  waited  for  a 
week  or  so,  expecting  the  sheriff  to  apologize,  and  make  Bowen 
his  deputy,  as  a  partial  reparation  ;  but  in  this  they  were  very 
much  deluded.  The  public  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
was  time  for  them  to  offer  Brown  Bowen  and  his  crowd  some 


BOWEN    IN    JAIL. 


BROWN  BO  WEN.  417 

incentive  to  behave  themselves.  Even  the  most  peaceable 
man  becomes  tired  of  being  shot  at  every  time  it  occurs  to 
some  ruffian  to  practise  with  his  pistol.  Hardin  and  his  men 
did  not  seem  to  have  been  well  acquainted  with  public  senti- 
ment. Growing  impatient  at  the  delay  of  the  sheriff  in  re- 
leasing Brown  Bowen,  and  making  the  amende  honorable,  Wes 
Hardin  and  his  subordinates  broke  into  the  jail,  and  released 
the  unfortunate  victim  of  popular  clamor. 

"  They  were  next  heard  of  in  Florida,  where  they  were  giving 
occasional  exhibitions  of  their  skill  with  their  professional  im- 
plement. Finally  the  Texas  excursionists  became  displeased 
at  the  conduct  of  a  superintendent  of  a  Florida  railroad.  At 
all  events,  they  made  an  assault  on  him  that  came  very  near 
being  fatal.  They  promised  faithfully,  although  they  were 
under  no  legal  obligation  to  do  so,  to  kill  him  next  time ;  and 
he  had  every  reason  to  believe  that  they  would  not  disappoint 
him.  The  superintendent,  from  that  time  on,  took  quite  an 
interest  in  them.  He  wrote  to  the  Texas  authorities  about  the 
missing  men.  A  large  reward  was  offered  by  the  governor  of 
Texas  for  their  capture.  Texas  detectives,  inspired  by  a  laud- 
able desire  to  see  the  fair  name  of  the  State  vindicated,  and  by 
the  large  reward,  went  to  Florida,  and  captured  the  whole  gang, 
—  if  that  is  not  too  harsh  an  expression,  —  including  several 
who  had  to  be  killed  before  they  would  yield  to  the  action  of 
the  civil  authorities.  Wes  Hardin  and  Brown  Bowen  accom- 
panied the  officers  on  their  return  to  Texas.  Hardin  now 
spends  all  his  time  in  the  penitentiary,  and  Brown  Bowen  will 
be  hung  day  after  to-morrow.  He  was  extradited  Sept.  I,  1877, 
tried  and  convicted  in  October  of  the  same  year.  He  had  the 
misfortune  to  self-defend  himself  against  his  victim,  Haider- 
man,  on  the  seventeenth  day  of  December,  1872." 

"  I  think  we  ought  to  go,"  said  the  doctor. 

"  It  is  your  duty  to  do  so,"  said  the  reporter. 

"  I'll  see  that  you  get  front  seats,  even  if  I  have  to  go  back 
on  journalism  to  the  extent  of  palming  you  off  on  the  sheriff  as 
members  of  the  press." 

"  We  will  go,  nevertheless,"  we  responded  in  chorus. 

"  I  will  call  for  you,  then.  Be  sure  and  make  all  requisite 
27 


418  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

preparations.  You  will  need  for  the  trip  some  cigars, — good 
ones,  —  also  a  flask  about  the  size  of  a  small  demijohn;  for 
Gonzales  is  a  local-option  town.  (That's  why  I  was  so  anxious 
for  you  to  go  along.)  Mind,  you  are  not  hampered  as  to  the 
quality  of  your  refreshments.  You  can't  get  them  too  good," 
concluded  the  candid  reporter. 

The  train  next  morning  contained  among  its  excursionists 
the  doctor,  the  reporter,  a  large  flask,  a  box  of  cigars,  and  my- 
self. The  reporter  inspected  the  flask,  and  pronounced  it  rather 
small  for  a  town  where  local  option  was  enforced  as  strictly  as 
it  was  in  Gonzales. 

"  Have  you  ever  been  to  Gonzales  ?  "  asked  the  doctor. 

"I've  been  there  frequently,"  said  the  reporter,  "and  can 
give  you  a  correct  description  of  it." 

"Tell  us  what  kind  of  a  metropolis  it  is,"  said  the  doctor; 
and,  as  the  landscape  shot  past,  the  reporter  gave  us  a  graphic 
description  of  the  town. 

"  Gonzales  is,  next  to  San  Antonio,  the  oldest  town  in  the 
State.  It  is,  however,  so  small  for  its  age,  that  you  would 
think  it  had  only  been  started  six  months  ago.  The  town 
proper  only  contains  five  or  six  hundred  people.  The  houses, 
except  some  few  private  residences  and  stores,  look  as  if  they 
were  built  when  the  town  was  first  settled,  and  had  not  been 
whitewashed  since.  The  city  was  laid  out  in  the  form  of  a 
cross  by  the  old  Spaniards ;  but,  owing  to  the  houses  being 
scattered  here,  there,  and  everywhere,  you  can't  perceive  this 
without  taking  the  word  of  an  old  inhabitant  for  it,  or  climbing 
up  in  a  balloon,  and  looking  down  on  the  place.  But  you  must 
not  look  down  on  Gonzales  ;  for,  if  you  do,  the  old  citizens  may 
re-enact  some  of  the  bloody  scenes  of  the  past.  Gonzales  is 
full  of  historical  reminiscences,  fleas  the  size  of  pecan-nuts,  and 
several  spots  on  which  revolutionary  events  took  place.  Under 
these  circumstances,  it  ought  to  flourish  more  than  it  does. 
There  are  three  or  four  stores,  presided  over  by  gentlemen 
with  Hebraic  casts  of  countenance.  Besides  historical  remi- 
niscences, and  the  nuisances  in  the  shape  of  fleas  and  mosqui- 
toes, Gonzales  boasts  of  producing  more  able  lawyers  than  any 
other  town  in  Texas.  Most  of  them  are  clever  fellows.  Last 


GONZALES. 


419 


time  I  was  down  there,  they  called  me  '  Colonel,'  and  took  me 
around  to  the  place  where  local  option  was  least  observed  — 
which,"  added  the  reporter,  "reminds  me  that  we  are  neglect- 
ing our  most  sacred  duties.  Please  hand  over  that  diminutive 
flask." 

A  glass  was  procured ;  and,  after  all  the  members  of  the  San 
Antonio  delegation  had  refreshed  themselves,  fresh  cigars  were 
lighted,  and  the  reporter  resumed. 

"  The  streets  of  Gonzales  are  quite  "  — 

"  Oh  !  give  us  some  historical  reminiscences,"  said  the  doctor. 

"Why,  you  just  stumble  over  them  anywhere.  Gonzales  is 
called  the  Lexington  of  Texas,  because  the  first  gun  of  the 
Texas  revolution  was  fired  there.  The  Texans  had  been  pre- 
viously filled  with  indignation  at  the  conduct  of  the  Mexicans. 
The  people  of  Gonzales  kept  a  cannon  in  town  for  the  purpose 
of  resenting  any  undue  familiarity  on  the  part  of  the  Indians, 
who  were  in  the  habit  of  coming  into  town,  and  taking  im- 
proper liberties  with  life  and  property.  When  the  coolness 
between  the  Mexicans  and  the  Americans  began  to  get  red- 
hot,  the  Mexicans  sent  down  a  detachment  to  ask  the  Texans 
to  allow  them  to  take  charge  of  the  gun  —  probably  to  prevent 
its  going  off  accidentally,  and  hurting  somebody.  The  Gon- 
zales people  loaded  up  the  gun,  and  sent  word  to  the  Mexican 
Satrap  to  '  come  and  take  it.'  He  did  not  come ;  but  there 
was  skirmishing,  during  which  the  first  gun  must  have  been 
fired. 

"  There  is  an  improbable  legend,  that  the  retreat  of  the 
Mexicans  was  brought  about  by  a  red  ant." 

"  By  a  what  ? " 

"By  one  of  those  red  ants  that  are  twice  as  hot  as  they 
look." 

"  How  was  that  ?  " 

"  I'll  give  you  the  story  just  as  I  got  it.  Sam  Houston  was 
in  command  at  Gonzales  while  the  negotiations  for  the  gun 
were  going  on ;  and  he  was  camped  on  the  bluff  of  the  river, 
near  Gonzales,  within  view  of  the  enemy.  The  Mexican  officer 
had  a  telescope,  by  which  he  could  bring  the  Gringoes  and  the 
gun  right  up  close,  and  examine  them,  without  running  any 


420 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


risk  of  being  fatally  injured.  Old  Sam  Houston  was  in  plain 
sight  one  day  ;  and  the  Mexican  officer,  noticing  something 
very  peculiar  about  his  motions,  drew  a  bead  on  him  with  his 
telescope.  When  he  beheld  old  Sam,  apparently  within  twenty 
feet,  stamping  and  rearing,  and  shaking  his  fists,  and  foaming 
at  the  mouth,  the  Mexican  thought  it  was  intended  for  him. 
Gen.  Houston  was  never  handsome,  but  his  face  distorted 
with  rage  was  absolutely  fearful.  The  Mexican  officer  had 
been  about  to  attack.  Had  he  done  so,  he  could  with  ease 
have  crushed  out  the  incipient  germ  of  Texas  liberty ;  but, 

i  t  e  r  r  i  fi  e  d   at 

what  he  saw, 
he  fell  back  in 
confusion  to 
San  Antonio. 
Thus  was 
Texas  saved." 
"  How  does 
the  red  ant 
come  into  that 
legend?" 

"I  don't 
know  how  the 
red  ant  came 
in,  but  there 
was  one  of 
them,  at  least, 
inside  of 

Houston's  buckskin  trousers.  He  was  inadvertently  standing 
on  a  nest  of  them,  and  they  just  climbed  up  on  him  as  if  he 
was  a  stalk  of  sugar-cane.  The  ant  ought  to  be  emblazoned 
on  the  Texas  coat-of-arms  as  the  national  bird  of  the  Lone  Star 
Republic. 

"  Everybody  who  visits  Gonzales  is  cordially  invited  to  step 
around  and  see  the  spot  where  Gen.  Houston  camped.  While 
he  is  taking  in  the  landscape,  some  of  those  identical  red  ants 
are  permitted  to  crawl  up  and  fasten  themselves  on  his  person, 
and  then  he  is  sure  to  appreciate  the  romance  of  history." 


SAM    HOUSTON    INTIMIDATING    THE    MEXICANS. 


OFF   TO    THE  HANGING.  421 

"  Any  thing  else  ? " 

"  Yes :  you  will  be  taken  to  see  a  patriotic  hole  in  the 
ground,  in  the  middle  of  the  square,  where  the  flag-staff  of  the 
first  Confederate  flag  in  Texas  was  sunk.  And  then  there  is 
the  Santa  Anna  mound.  But  here  we  are  at  Harwood." 

Harwood  is  a  small  station  on  the  Sunset  Route,  about  forty- 
five  or  fifty  miles  from  San  Antonio.  Here  passengers  for 
Gonzales  take  the  stage  for  that  place,  which  is  about  twelve 
miles  distant.  Harwood  consists  principally  of  a  railroad-depot, 
and  a  frame-house  that  seems  to  be  sinking  out  of  sight  into 
the  ground,  under  the  pressure  of  a  large  sign  on  which  is  the 
word  "  Hotel." 

An  ambulance  drawn  by  a  couple  of  tolerably  good  horses 
was  ready  to  carry  us  to  Gonzales  at  the  rate  of  two  dollars  a 
head,  in  advance. 

The  drive  to  Gonzales  was  very  unpleasant,  the  weather 
being  hot,  and  the  roads  dusty.  The  country  was  neither  hilly 
nor  mountainous  ;  and  very  few  farms  were  visible,  until  we 
approached  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Gonzales.  The  affliction 
incident  to  our  ride  on  the  rough  vehicle  was  partially  miti- 
gated by  drinks  of  water  at  the  muddy  pools.  It  was  astonish- 
ing what  a  vivifying  effect  water  had,  when  mixed  judiciously 
with  the  contents  of  the  flask. 

About  one  o'clock,  blistered  by  the  sun,  with  our  eyes  and 
ears  full  of  the  soil  of  Gonzales  County,  very  tired,  and  still 
more  hungry,  we  arrived  at  the  town  of  Gonzales,  and  put  up 
at  the  Howerton  House,  an  excellent  hotel. 

The  first  thing  the  reporter  wanted  to  know  was,  if  Bowen 
had  escaped,  committed  suicide,  or  been  pardoned ;  and,  being 
informed  that  Bowen  was  still  alive  and  in  jail,  the  reporter 
expressed  his  satisfaction,  and  suggested  that  we  immediately 
proceed  to  dinner.  After  removing,  as  far  as  it  could  be  done 
with  soap  and  water,  the  evidence  of  our  pilgrimage  through 
the  dust,  we  proceeded  to  the  dinner-table.  About  twenty  men 
were  already  at  work.  We  took  our  places,  and  were  soon  feel- 
ing better  than  we  had  for  some  time  past. 

Opposite  to  me  was  seated  an  old  bald-headed  man,  with  a 
most  decidedly  sinister  expression  of  countenance.  He  was 


422 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


very  talkative,  using  his  mouth  for  the  purpose  of  masticating 
his  food  only  when  he  ran  short  of  ideas. 

"  Come  to  see  the  hanging  ? " 

"  Yes.     Hand  me  those  string-beans,"  said  the  reporter. 

The  bald-headed  man  gave  us  much  information  about  Brown 
Bowen  and  his  crime.  He  was  well  informed  on  the  subject  of 
hanging.  Even  while  we  were  eating  the  soup,  he  branched 
off  into  a  life-like  description  of  an  execution  he  had  evidently 
assisted  at  up  in  Kansas.  The  reporter  was  not  much  affected, 
for  he  passed  his  plate  a  second  time.  The  bald-headed  man 
was  from  Kansas,  and  enlivened  the  banquet  with  murder- 
stories  that  would  have  done  credit  to  the  author  of  a  series  of 
yellow-backed  novels. 

"  Hanging  is  nuthin'  when  you  once  get  used  to  it." 

"  How  many  times  have  you  been  hung  ?  "  asked  the  doctor. 

"  I  mean  hanging,  ef  you  do  the  hanging  yourself." 

"  I've  helped  hang  five  or  six  myself,"  said  the  reporter. 

"  You  hev,  hev  you  ? "  said  the  bald-headed  man,  brightening 
up.  "  I  could  tell  some  of  my  experiences  that  would  make 
your  har  stand  on  end.  I've  come  fifty  miles  to  attend  this 
Brown  Bowen  ceremony." 

During  the  rest  of  the  meal  the  bald-headed  man  cheered  us 
up  with  the  description  of  three  bodies  he  found  hung  on  a  tree. 

"  I  wonder,"  said  the  re- 


porter, "  if  the  landlord  has 
hired  him  to  take  the  wire 
edge  off  our  appetites.  If 
he  did,  he  is  fooling  him- 
self, as  far  as  I  am  con- 
cerned. I  happened  to  be 
in  the  Confederate  army.  — 
Pass  the  turnips." 

"I've  done  seen  the 
sheriff,  and  he  told  me  confidentially  that  he  was  going  to  give 
Brown  seven-feet  fall.  If  he  does,  it  will  break  his  damn  neck, 
jest  like  that,"  said  the  bald-headed  man,  breaking  a  stalk  of 
celery  between  his  fingers.  "  In  Kansas  we  used  to  haul  'em 
up  off  the  ground." 


THE    BALD-HEADED    MAN    ILLUSTRATES. 


A    CONFEDERATE  RELIC. 


423 
"All  I  have  to 


"Any  way  will  suit  me,"  said  the  reporter, 
do  is  to  report  it." 

Leaving  the  bald-headed  man  at  the  table,  entertaining  a  late 
arrival  with  a  description  of  a  dead  body  he  helped  to  pull  out 
of  a  river  in  Eastern  Texas,  we  strolled  out  to  take  a  look  at 
the  town.  Our  landlord  was  kind  enough  to  accompany  us! 
"Would  you  like  to  see  the  spot  where  Gen.  Sam  Houston 


NOBODY   HAD    REMOVED   THE    RELIC. 

camped,   in    1835,  when  the  Mexicans 
wanted  to  attack  the  place  ? " 

We  all  said  we  did  not,  remembering 

Sam's  experience  with  the  red  ants  ;  but  we  expressed  a  willing- 
ness to  see  the  hole  where  stood  the  flagstaff  from  which  waved 
the  first  Confederate  flag  in  Texas.  Fortunately,  nobody  had 
removed  the  relic.  After  this  ceremony  was  over,  we  were  in- 
troduced to  the  sheriff  of  Gonzales  County, — a  large,  plain, 
blunt  sort  of  a  man,  with  a  good-natured  expression  of  counte- 
nance, who  treated  us  very  politely,  and  asked  us  if  we  would 
like  to  be  introduced  to  Brown  Bowen.  We  said  we  would. 
In  a  few  minutes  we  were  at  the  jail.  The  sheriff  had  that 


424 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


morning  received  a  telegram  from  the  governor,  refusing  to 
interfere.  The  jail  was  a  stone  building  two  stories  high,  but 
only  the  upper  story  was  used  as  a  jail.  A  stairway  led  up 

from  the  outside  to  the  landing  of 
the  second  story.  Directly  in  front 
of  this  stairway  was  a  small  frame- 
building,  in  which  were  quartered 
six  or  eight  rangers,  under  com- 
mand of  Capt.  Hall.  Between  the 
jail  and  the  frame-building,  several 
carpenters  were  putting  the  finish- 
ing touches  on  the  scaffold,  the 
floor  of  which  was  on  a  level  with 
the  stairway ;  so  that  all  the  con- 
demned man  had  to  do  was  to  step 
out  of  the  door  of  the  jail,  across 
the  landing,  to  the  gallows.  The 
jail-yard  was  incased  by  a  picket  - 
fence,  that  did  not,  in  the  least,  in- 
terfere with  the  view  of  the  scaffold. 
As  we  were  going  up  the  steps, 
a  man  came  running  down, 
considerably  excited. 

"What's  up  now  —  sui- 
cide ?  "  asked  the  sheriff. 
"No." 

"Tried  to  escape  ?  " 
"No." 

"What  is  it,  then?" 
"  He    wants    a    brandy 
peach." 

"All  right :  hunt  up  one 
for  him,  poor  devil." 

We    proceeded    up    the 

stairs  to  the  landing,  where  the  sheriff  took  a  look  at  the  gal- 
lows, at  which  the  carpenters  were  hammering  and  sawing. 
In  the  middle  of  the  platform,  which  was  surrounded  by  a  low 
railing,  a  trap-door  had  been  cut.  It  was  arranged  so  that, 


'HE    WANTS    A    BRANDY    PEACH." 


INTERVIEWING  A   MURDERER.  425 

upon  touching  a  lever,  the  trap  would  fall  out,  and  drop  to  the 
ground,  a  distance  of  twenty  feet.  After  the  sheriff  had  made 
a  few  suggestions  about  the  public  improvements  in  process  of 
erection,  we  entered  the  jail.  Peering  through  the  bars  were  a 
pair  of  anxious  brown  eyes.  The  door  was  unlocked,  and  we 
were  in  the  presence  of  Brown  Bowen.  He  was  a  young  man, 
not  more  than  thirty  years  of  age,  well  built,  and  rather  above 
medium  height.  He  had  brown  hair  and  eyes,  regular  features, 
and  had  quite  a  pleasant  expression  of  countenance.  There 
was  nothing  about  him  to  indicate  the  desperado. 

"The  governor  has  refused  to  save  you,  Bowen,"  said  the 
sheriff. 

"  He  is  a  mob,"  replied  Bowen. 

"  Here  are  some  gentlemen,  and  a  newspaper  reporter,  who 
have  come  to  see  you,"  remarked  the  sheriff. 

The  doomed  man  shook  hands  with  us.  He  had  a  grip  like 
iron. 

"  When  am  I  to  be  murdered  by  the  mob  ? "  he  asked. 

"  Will  half-past  two  suit  you,  Bowen  ? " 

"  Oh  !  if  I  am  to  be  murdered,  I  don't  care  when  it  comes 
off." 

The  sheriff  was  about  to  reply,  when  the  jailer  announced 
the  arrival  of  Bowen's  attorney,  who  was  admitted.  He  was  a 
large  man,  with  a  red  beard  and  a  loud  voice.  He  seemed  to 
be  laboring  under  considerable  enthusiasm.  Under  his  arm  he 
carried  a  copy  of  "  Paschal's  Digest  of  the  Laws  of  Texas." 

"  Brown  Bowen,"  said  Col.  Jones,  for  that  was  his  name, 
"  they  have  no  right  to  swing  you  off  publicly  in  the  presence 
of  a  mob." 

"  No,  they  haven't,"  said  Brown  Bowen. 

"And  if  you  want  it,  you  can  be  hung,  and  you  have  the 
right  to  be  hung,  quietly  in  your  cell,  without  any  public  os- 
tentation.—  Mr.  Sheriff,  I  serve  this  paper  on  you,  requiring 
you  to  hang  my  client  right  here  in  this  cell." 

"  Right  in  here  ! "  exclaimed  the  sheriff. 

"  Yes,  sir :  the  law  requires  that  the  execution  shall  be  pri- 
vate, when  it  can  be  done.  —  Yes,  Brown  Bowen,  you  can  be 
hung  right  where  you  are  standing  now.  A  trap-door  can 


426  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

be  cut  in  the  floor,  and  a  ring  fastened  in  the  ceiling  overhead, 
and  you  can  be  dropped  right  straight  down  into  —  I  mean  with 
your  friends  present." 

"  I  don't  see  what  good  that  would  do  me,"  growled  Bowen. 

"  Cut  a  trap-door  in  the  floor !  "  said  the  sheriff  :  "  that  would 
be  an  accommodation,  sure.  Every  prisoner  would  want  a 
trap-door  in  his  cell.  This  is  a  devil  of  a  time  to  be  making 
improvements  in  the  jail.  Do  you  take  me  for  a  building 
committee  ? " 

Failing  to  carry  his  point,  Col.  Jones  looked  around,  and,  see- 
ing our  friend  taking  notes  from  Brown  Bowen,  he  said  in  a  most 
solemn  manner,  "  Brown  Bowen,  do  you  prepare  to  meet  your 

God,  and  tell  that reporter  to  go  to  the  devil,"  —  a  remark 

which  produced  a  universal  smile,  in  which  the  condemned 
man  joined  heartily.  But  Col.  Jones  was  not  disposed  to  take 
part  in  the  levity  he  had  created.  He  proceeded  to  deliver  a 
Mark  Antony  address  over  Bowen,  who  lay  on  a  blanket  on  the 
floor.  "  It's  nothing,  Brown  Bowen  :  it  will  be  over  before  you 
know  it.  You  will  just  slide  through  the  trap-door,  and  the  next 
moment  you  will  be  walking  around  in  the  mansions  of  light.  I 
am  the  only  friend  you  have  got.  They  all  hate  me  because 
I  am  your  friend.  Good-by,  Brown  Bowen." 

"  Good-by,  Col.  Jones,"  said  Bowen. 

"Fare  thee  well,  Brown  Bowen." 

"  Colonel,  couldn't  you  bring  your  children  around  to-morrow 
to  see  me  hung? " 

"  No,  Bowen,  I  can't  let  my  children  come ;  but  I'll  try  and 
be  on  hand  myself."  And  the  colonel  passed  out,  Bowen  giving 
the  sheriff  a  most  impressive  wink.  We  shortly  afterwards  took 
our  leave  of  the  unfortunate  man,  and  returned  to  the  hotel. 

The  hanging  was  to  take  place  the  next  day  at  half-past  two. 
We  did  not  visit  Brown  Bowen  again,  but  the  reporter  paid  him 
a  professional  visit  in  the  morning.  He  went  to  see  him,  and 
found  him  very  much  unnerved,  —  in  fact,  completely  prostrated. 
He  told  the  reporter  that  it  was  Hardin  who  shot  Halderman, 
and  that  it  was  a  case  of  mistaken  identity.  He  said  he  was 
going  to  be  hung  for  Wes  Hardin.  When  he  was  asked  about 
the  fatal  misunderstanding  in  Florida,  he  said  he  had  something 


INTERVIEWING  A   MURDERER.  427 

in  Texas  that  bothered  him  ;  but,  although  he  had  killed  several 
men  in  Florida,  he  did  not  feel  the  slightest  compunction.  His 
conscience  only  troubled  him  about  his  Texas  misdeeds.  What 
happened  beyond  the  State  line  was  wholly  immaterial  to  him. 
This  was  the  first  time  that  I  had  heard  of  a  man's  conscience 
being  affected  by  geographical  boundary-lines.  In  regard  to 
his  religious  views  the  three  Methodist  clergymen  had  much 


'COLONEL,    BRING    YOUR    CHILDREN    AROUND    TO    SEE    ME    HUNG." 


difficulty.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Scale,  his  principal  spiritual  adviser, 
told  the  reporter  that  he  did  not  regard  Brown  Bowen's  spirit- 
ual condition  as  at  all  satisfactory.  While  he  had  no  scruples 
about  indulging  in  religious  exercises,  he  had  made  no  profession 
of  religion. 

The  crowd  which  gathered  around  the  gallows  was  immense. 
It   consisted  of  men,  women,  and  children.     There  were  not 


428  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

less  than  forty-five  hundred  people  present.  At  half-past  two 
Sheriff  Bass,  Rev.  Mr.  Scale,  and  several  deputies,  accompanied 
by  Brown  Bowen,  came  out  and  took  their  places  on  the 
scaffold.  The  sheriff  had  his  foot  on  the  trap-door,  when  the 
clergyman  accidentally  placed  his  hand  on  the  trigger.  Down 
went  the  trap  with  a  thundering  sound,  nearly  precipitating  the 
sheriff  through  the  small  trap-door.  He  caught  the  railing,  and 
saved  himself.  But  for  the  railing,  the  sheriff  would  probably 
have  broken  his  neck.  The  idea  of  the  clergyman  dropping 
the  sheriff  through  the  trap-door  in  the  presence  of  the  man 
who  was  to  be  hung,  was  a  novel  one.  Brown  Bowen's  hard 
features  relaxed  into  a  smile  of  vast  proportions,  and  a  roar  of 
laughter  went  up  from  the  crowd.  Even  Mr.  Scale's  melan- 
choly features  were  lighted  up  with  a  momentary  smile. 

But  there  was  serious  work  ahead.  The  face  of  the  con- 
demned man  assumed  its  former  hard,  fierce  expression.  The 
death-warrant  was  read  by  the  sheriff.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Scale 
read  a  long  dying  statement  made  by  Bowen,  affirming  his 
innocence,  and  accusing  Wesley  Hardin  and  the  witnesses  of 
lying  and  perjury.  As  soon  as  the  clergyman  had  finished 
reading  the  statement,  the  noose  was  placed  around  the  neck 
of  the  culprit,  who  assisted  in  adjusting  it.  Bowen  stood  erect, 
and,  with  a  fixed,  stern  gaze,  looked  down  on  the  crowd,  with 
most  of  whom  he  was  acquainted.  He  showed  no  sign  of  fear 
or  weakness  in  this  supreme  moment.  He  was  Brown  Bowen, 
the  defiant.  You  could  tell  by  the  wavering  in  the  voice  of 
the  clergyman  that  the  prayer  was  drawing  to  its  end ;  and  still 
Brown  Bowen  kept  his  glittering  eye  on  the  crowd  below. 

"Through  the  mercy  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour" —  In  a 
moment  all  was  over.  There  was  a  downward  plunge  and  a 
few  convulsive  movements  of  the  shoulders,  and  Brown  Bowen's 
case  was  before  a  higher  court. 

In  company  with  the  reporter,  we  spent  the  day  after  the 
hanging,  fishing  on  the  Guadaloupe.  A  queer-looking  stranger 
came  into  our  camp  one  afternoon,  and,  among  other  things, 
told  us  of  a  cave  close  by,  that  the  aborigines  once  used  as  a 
place  of  abode  or  as  a  hiding-place.  As  we  expressed  a  desire 
to  shed  a  tear  in  this  monument  to  the  departed  glory  of  our 


GEOLOGICAL  REMARKS.  429 

red  brethren,  he  kindly  consented  to  lead  us  to  the  spot.  We 
passed  from  the  prairie  into  the  woods  that  line  the  bank  of  a 
large  creek.  We  travelled  a  mile  before  we  arrived  at  the  creek, 
a  clear  stream  running  through  a  rugged  and  rocky  gorge,  — 

"  A  wilderness  of  sweets ;  for  Nature  here  at  will 
Wantoned  as  in  her  prime,  and  played  at  will 
Her  virgin  fancies,  poured  forth  more  sweets, 
Wild  above  rule  or  art,  enormous  bliss." 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  that  sort  of  poetry  in  the  canyon 
to  carry  away  with  us.  We  left  it  there  with  the  red  bugs,  ticks, 
and  other  poetic  gems  that  we  found  in  the  "wilderness  of 
sweets." 

The  entrance  of  the  cave  was  a  hole  in  the  face  of  the  bluff, 
about  the  size  of  a  dinner-plate,  and  some  twenty  feet  from  the 
ground,  beside  the  feat  that  it  was  to  climb  up  to  it.  This  cave 
had  only  been  discovered  a  few  days  before  we  visited  it.  It 
was  about  forty  feet  high  from  floor  to  dome,  and  about  a  hun- 
dred feet  in  diameter.  From  the  entrance,  rude  steps  led  down 
to  the  floor.  From  the  roof  hung  stalactites,  the  drippings 
from  which  were  piled  up  on  the  floor  in  grotesque  shapes. 
The  reporter  said,  "  You  observe  these  stalactites  :  they  are 
formed  by  water,  containing  calcareous  particles,  filtering 
through  fissures  of  the  rocks  overhead.  By  this  monument  of 
history,  which  has  escaped  the  dilapidations  of  time,  we  are 
enabled  to  fix  the  epoch  of  the  creation  of  the  world.  Moses 
was  a  well-meaning  man,  but  he  made  mistakes.  The  chrono- 
logical books  of  the  Chinese  are  but  fables  ;  and  the  Phoenician 
historian,  Sanchoniatho,  knew  as  little  regarding  the  age  of  the 
world  as  he  did  about  the  market-price  of  mackerel.  You  can 
no  more  judge  the  age  of  the  world  by  reading  orthodox  books 
than  you  can  judge  of  the  age  of  a  cow  by  the  amount  of  milk 
she  gives.  But  when  we  go  back  to  the  paleontological  records 
of  the  anthropolithric  or  anthropozoic  era,  or  when  we  examine 
the  Neptunic  strata  of  the  quaternary  epoch,  and  the  diluvian  or 
pleistocene  system,  we  find  that  right  here  the  scientist  can  "  — 

"  Right  here  the  scientist  can  get  his  head  broken  if  he  in- 
dulges in  any  more  such  geological  remarks,"  said  the  stranger. 


430  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  We  have  heard  all  that  before.  What  we  came  here  for  was 
to  weep  over  the  traces  of  a  dead  race.  My  friend,  I  would 
thank  you  to  inaugurate  the  weep ;  for  right  before  us  you  see 
in  a  state  of  petrification  the  domestic'implements  and  conven- 
iences of  the  prehistoric  savage.  Two  thousand  years  ago, 
more  or  less,  there  was  an  advanced  civilization  on  this  spot 
that  we  to-day  can  only  faintly  picture  or  realize.  The  Aztec 
aborigine  revelled  in  the  knowledge  of  arts  and  sciences  that 
have  since  been  lost  and  forgotten,  or  only  lately  rediscovered. 
That  petrification  there  to  the  left  was  originally  a  lactealo- 
scope,  —  an  instrument  unknown  at  the  present  day,  but  once 
used  by  the  Aztec  milkmaid  to  induce  the  cow  of  the  period  to 
part  with  her  milk.  This  part  was  the  electric  battery ;  that, 
the  rubber  attachment  to  the  cow's  udder :  connecting  the  two 
with  a  wire,  it  is  evident  that  the  most  obstinate  cow  would  be 
compelled  to  let  down  at  least  a  gallon  of  milk  in  a  minute. 
That  to  the  left,  which  looks  like  a  block  of  limestone,  is  the 
knee-joint  of  an  animal  now  extinct.  But,  taking  the  bone  as 
a  base  of  calculation,  we  can  easily  demonstrate  that  the  animal 
to  which  it  belonged  was  thirty-five  feet  long,  graminivorous, 
suckled  its  young,  had  a  short  bushy  tail,  and  was  used  as  a 
beast  of  burden.  Here  we  have,  apparently,  the  fragments  of 
a  Franklin  cooking-stove,  possibly  blown  up  in  the  usual  way, 
although  I  have  been  unable  to  find  any  piece  of  the  cook,  or 
the  vessel  that  contained  the  non-explosive  oil.  That  chunk 
there  I  make  out  to  have  been  "  — 

"  But,"  interrupted  the  reporter,  "  I  cannot  see  " — 
"  No,  I  do  not  suppose  that  you  can,"  said  the  stranger ;  "for 
you  have  not  studied  the  matter  as  I  have.  I  have  given  you 
my  theory.  Some  people  may  not  like  it ;  but  I  have  dis- 
covered this  cave,  and  I  am  going  to  run  that  theory  for  all  it 
is  worth.  You  may  possibly  think  that  the  aborigine  was  not 
as  much  civilized  as  I  make  him  out  to  be  ;  but  you  have  got 
to  believe  it,  for  there,  before  you,  is  the  evidence." 

As  we  noticed,  among  other  evidence,  a  six-shooter  in  the 
stranger's  belt,  and  a  queer  gleam  in  his  eye,  we  swallowed  the 
whole  story,  cooking-stove  and  all.  When  we  emerged  from 
the  cave,  we  parted  from  the' stranger,  and  returned  to  town. 


AN  INDIAN  MOUND.  431 

On  inquiry,  we  learned  that  he  was  a  harmless  lunatic  from 
one  of  the  New-England  'States,  who  had  been  sent  to  Texas 
by  his  friends,  in  the  hope  that  he  would  either  be  killed,  or 
cured  of  his  lunacy.  It  seems  that  he  became  insane  trying 
to  figure  out  that  the  Chinese  and  the  North-American  Indians 
were  originally  the  same  race  of  people.  He  based  his  argu- 
ments on  the  manners  and  the  customs  of  the  two  races,  and 
on  a  lot  of  pottery,  arrow-heads,  frozen  potatoes,  and  other  pre- 
historic junk  found  in  some  alleged  Indian  mounds.  His  papers 
on  the  subject,  printed  in  pamphlet  form,  were  eulogized  and 
commended  by  all  the  savants  of  the  times  ;  and  his  reasonings 
and  ingenious  theories  were  admired  and  accepted  by  the  sci- 
entists and  antiquarians  of  the  two  hemispheres. 

I  told  the  doctor  that  the  stranger  seemed  to  me  to  be  per- 
fectly sane  while  talking  in  the  cave. 

"Yes,"  said  he,  "just  about  as  sane  as  ever  he  was  in  his 
life,  I  reckon." 

The  doctor  affects  subtle  sarcasm  of  that  calibre  once  in 
a  while. 

Close  to  the  cave  we  did  find  a  real  Simon  pure  Indian 
mound,  where  we  unearthed  pieces  of  bone,  sharp-pointed 
flints,  and  earth-worms ;  but  we  refrained  from  building  a 
theory,  the  material  not  warranting  its  construction.  We  stood 
on  the  mound,  and  thought  the  matter  over.  We  did  not  even 
draw  an  inference,  or  any  thing  else  except  a  cork,  just  then  ; 
because  we  felt  that  we  were  steeped  in  degrading  ignorance 
regarding  what  the  Indians  did,  and  how  they  did  it,  two  hun- 
dred or  two  thousand  years  ago. 

All  know  about  the  ancient  Indian  history  found  in  a  book 
the  other  day.  Peter  Martyn  was  the  author.  The  book  is 
called  "The  Decades  of  the  New  Worlde,"  written  in  1550. 
The  author  says,  — 

"  In  many  places  of  the  firme  land,  when  any  of  the  kyngs  dye,  all  hys 
householde  servauntes,  which  have  continually  served  hym,  doo  kyll  them- 
selves, believyng,  as  they  are  taught  by  the  devyle  Tuyra,  that  they  which 
kyll  themselves,  when  the  Kynge  dyeth,  doo  go  with  hym  to  heaven,  and 
serve  hym  in  the  same  place  and  office  as  they  dyd  before  on  the  earthe 
whyle  he  lyved ;  and  that  all  that  refuse  so  to  doo,  when  after  they  dye  of 


432  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

theyr  natural  death,  or  otherwyse,  theyr  souls  doo  dye  with  theyr  bodyes, 
and  doo  be  dissolved  into  ayer,  and  become  nothying,  as  doo  soules  of 
hogges,  or  fyshes,  or  other  brute  beasts." 


I  will  stake  my  reputation  on  Peter  having  the  hang  of  the 
prehistoric  Indian  business  three  hundred  years  ago ;  but  I 
regret  that  the  Indian  backslid  from  the  old  religion.  There 
are  not  enough  of  them  in  these  degenerate  days  that  "doo 
kyll  themselves."  The  present  offshoot  from  the  old  Indian 
church  of  1550  seems  to  have  been  "taught  by  the  devyle"  to 
kill  their  pale-faced  brethren  rather  than  themselves.  Nations 
and  religions  change,  also  the  moon,  the  "devyle's"  teachings, 
greenbacks,  and  every  thing  except  a  leopard's  spots  and  a 
boarding-house  tablecloth  ;  but  in  the  matter  of  pure  cussed- 
ness  an  Indian  never  varies. 

While  fishing  on  the  Guadaloupe,  we  met  a  surveyor  and  his 
assistant,  who  said  they  were  going  out  on  the  prairie  some 
twenty  miles,  to  survey  a  thousand  acres  that  a  stockman 
wanted  to  enclose  for  a  pasture.  The  land  had  been  surveyed 
before  ;  but  the  corners  had  been  misplaced,  or  carried  off  by 
some  one,  and,  to  find  out  the  boundaries,  a  new  survey  had  to 
be  made.  We  often  wondered  how  a  man  could  identify  his 
land  on  a  flat  prairie,  where  there  were  no  apparent  landmarks 
to  guide  him.  In  wooded  lands  the  corners  are  known  by 
marks  cut  in  trees  with  an  axe ;  but,  where  there  are  no  per- 
manent natural  objects,  the  surveyor  marks  a  corner  by  driving 
a  small,  wooden  stake  into  the  ground.  This  is  a  very  unsatis- 
factory arrangement ;  because  the  first  teamster  who  comes 
along  will  probably  carry  off  the  south-east  corner  of  the  sur- 
vey, and  cook  his  breakfast  with  it,  or  appropriate  the  north- 
west corner,  and  use  the  ancient  landmark  to  whittle  on  as  he 
rides  along. 

In  the  absence  of  wood,  a  few  stones  or  bones  are  piled  up, 
and  form  a  corner ;  and  we  have  seen  a  cow's  horn  stuck  in  a 
buffalo-chip  make  one  of  the  marks  of  the  corner  of  an  eleven- 
league  grant. 

When  corners  are  lost  or  mislaid,  the  surveyor,  to  find  the 
place  again,  has  to  go  back  to  some  plainly-defined  starting- 


TEXAS  LANDMARKS. 


433 


point,  called  an  "established  corner,"  on  some  other  grant,  and 
survey  from  that.  He  often  has  to  run  a  line  ten  miles  in 
length,  from  a  known,  to  find  an  unknown,  point.  There  is 
one  kind  of  corner  that  a  teamster  has  never  been  known  to 
carry  off.  It  is  made  with  a  spade.  Teamsters  may  have 
attempted,  but  have  never  succeeded  in,  carrying  off  a  hole  in 
the  ground. 

There  are  certain  old  Texans  in  every  locality  who  know,  or 
pretend  to  know,  the  location  of  most  all  of  the  old  Spanish 
grants  in  the  State.  These  old  frauds  are  continually  appear- 
ing in  the  courts  as  witnesses  in  cases  where  boundaries  are 
disputed.  They  can  point  out  and  identify  corners,  follow 
meanders,  and  give  the  biography  and  pedigree  of  the  original 
grantee,  of  every  piece  of  land  within  a  radius  of  a  hundred 
miles  from  where  they  bear  witness.  They  have  wonderful 
memories.  I  knew  one  of  them  who  testified  to  having  carried 
the  chain  in  a  survey  made  in  1806.  As  he  only  claimed  to  be 
eighty  years  of  age  at  the  time  he  gave  his  testimony,  the  fact 
that  he  was  able  to  carry  a  chain  in  1806  goes  to  show  what  a 
precocious  and  robust  race  the  early  Texans  were,  —  figures 
proving  that  this  man  was  but  four  years  of  age  when  he  was 
engaged  in  the  surveying-feat  alluded  to. 

The  extraordinary  memory  exhibited  in  the  matter  of  the 
identification  of  corners  by  the  old  Texans,  is  explained  by  a 
quaint  custom  common  in  the  early  days  of  the  Republic. 
When  a  settler  received  a  grant  of  land  from  the  Spanish  Gov- 
ernment, he  would  get  it  surveyed,  and  have  the  corners  estab- 
lished. Then,  that  the  identity  of  the  boundaries  might  be 
preserved  in  the  family,  he  would  take  his  children  out  periodi- 
cally, and  whip  them  on  the  corners  of  the  land.  It  was  no 
uncommon  thing  for  a  traveller,  as  he  journeyed  across  the 
prairie,  to  see  a  rugged  old  pioneer  standing  on  the  north-east 
corner  of  his  league  and  labor  of  land,  thrashing  his  eldest 
with  a  rawhide  strap,  while,  under  the  ministrations  of  his 
mother,  a  younger  son  was  howling  on  the  south-west 
corner. 

In  such  manner  was  nurtured  the  boy  who  has  since  devel- 
oped into  the  old  veteran  of  to-day,  so  eloquent  and  unreliable, 
28 


434 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  As  scenes  long  past  of  joy  and  pain, 
Come  wandering  o'er  his  aged  brain." 


They  had  no  Sunday-school  nor  daily  newspaper  in  those 
days ;  but  they  worried  along  somehow  without  them,  and 
learned  economy  in  truth  almost  as  well  as  if  they  had  had 
those  advantages. 


A  BARBECUE. 


435 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 


CCOMPANIED  by  the  reporter,  we  left 
San    Antonio   in  the   gray  dawn  of  a 
summer    morning.      The    reporter 
was  going  to  Eagle  Pass  on  profes- 
sional business,  and  we  agreed 
to  travel  together. 

First,  however,  it  was  neces- 
sary that  the  reporter  should  at- 
tend a  barbecue,  held  some  ten 
miles  from  the  city.  The  doc- 
tor and  I  rode  with  him  to  the 
barbecue. 

There  is  a  natural  and  uncon- 
trollable tendency  on  the  part 
of  civilized  men  to  get  up  picnics 
and  barbecues.  Every  spring, 
for  instance,  men,  women,  and 
children  flock  out  into  the  fields 
and  forests,  and  afford  a  great 

deal  of  comfort  to  the  hungry  ticks  and  other  insects  that  they 
meet  there. 

The  excursionists  acquire  freckles  enough  to  last  them  during 
the  remainder  of  the  season,  and  they  subsequently  find  them- 
selves in  the  possession  of  a  cutaneous  disease,  the  effects  of 
a  poisonous  vine  ;  but  that  is  not  what  they  are  after.  The  fact 
is,  that  people  could  not  help  going  to  picnics  and  barbecues, 
even  if  they  wanted  to  stay  at  home.  The  desire  is  in  the 
blood.  The  most  civilized  of  men  every  once  in  a  while  rush 
out  into  the  woods,  and  live  like  Indians  for  a  few  hours  at 


436  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

least.  The  habits  and  customs  of  past  generations  will  some- 
times break  out  through  the  varnish  of  civilization.  For  in- 
stance :  the  domesticated  dog  of  the  present  day,  before  lying 
down  on  a  Brussels  carpet,  will  turn  himself  around  several 
times,  and  arrange  imaginary  dead  forest-leaves,  that  he  may 
have  a  comfortable  bed.  In  his  wild  state,  centuries  ago,  the 
ancestor  of  the  modern  dog  went  through  these  otherwise  inex- 
plicable manoeuvres  ;  and  his  descendant  instinctively  clings  to 
the  habit.  Feed  him  on  the  richest  food  from  your  table,  yet, 
when  occasion  offers,  he  will  go  out  into  the  fields,  kill  a  sheep, 
and  eat  of  the  raw  mutton,  while  at  home  he  would  turn  up 
his  nose  at  any  thing  not  properly  cooked. 

Another  illustration  :  when  Julius  Caesar  invaded  Britain, 
the  natives  cast  off  their  garments,  and,  spear  in  hand,  rushed 
into  the  water,  without  even  a  bathing-suit  on,  to  repel  the 
invaders  of  their  soil.  There  was  really  no  necessity  for  doing 
this ;  for  the  Romans  were  determined  to  land,  regardless  of 
whether  the  Britons  were  clothed  or  naked.  The  Britons  were 
defeated  by  a  large  majority  ;  and  then  and  there  originated  one 
of  our  polite  expressions,  sometimes  used  when  we  are  desirous 
of  calming  down  an  irate  adversary. 

The  ancient  Briton  has  disappeared  ;  but  among  his  descend- 
ants the  custom  of  divesting  themselves  of  their  superfluous 
garments,  preparatory  to  a  fight,  is  perpetuated.  To  this  day 
the  first  thing  an  Englishman  does,  when  assaulted,  is  to  take 
off  his  coat.  Men  of  no  other  nationality  do  this.  Again  :  in 
naval  engagements  the  English  and  American  sailors  strip  to 
the  waist,  unconsciously  imitating  what  their  ancestors  did 
hundreds  of  years  before. 

So  it  is  in  the  matter  of  barbecues.  Doubtless,  for  thousands 
of  years,  man  lived  under  trees,  and  ate  the  half-cooked  flesh 
of  wild  animals ;  and,  so  long  as  man  lives  on  earth,  he  will 
have  an  occasional  yearning  to  return  to  his  originally  savage 
condition.  This  yearning  finds  expression  in  our  barbecues 
and  picnics. 

A  barbecue  is  a  festival  the  most  prominent  features  of 
which  are  political  speeches  and  roasted  hog.  A  barbecue  is 
usually  given  by  the  inhabitants  of  some  rural  district  desirous 


A  BARBECUE.  437 

of  giving  candidates  an  opportunity  to  state,  that,  if  elected,  all 
their  energies  will  be  devoted  to  the  interests  of  their  constitu- 
ents and  the  public  weal,  and  that  they  pledge  themselves,  that, 
when  their  tenure  of  office  shall  expire,  they  will  restore  the 
high  trust  committed  to  their  hands  unsullied,  etc. 

We  arrived  on  the  barbecue-grounds  at  about  ten  o'clock. 
More  than  two  thousand  people  had  already  arrived,  some  from 
a  distance  of  forty  to  fifty  miles,  —  old  gray-bearded  pioneers, 
with  their  wives,  in  ox-wagons  ;  young  men,  profuse  in  the 
matter  of  yellow-topped  boots  and  jingling  spurs,  on  horse- 
back ;  fair  maidens  in  calico,  curls,  and  pearl-powder,  some  on 
horseback,  others  in  wagons  and  buggies.  These,  with  a  liberal 
sprinkling  of  howling,  bald-headed  babies  in  arms,  made  up  the 
crowd  that  met  in  a  shady  grove  on  a  hillside  to  participate  in 
the  barbaric  rites  of  the  barbecue. 

A  stand  had  been  erected  for  the  speakers.  Around  it  the 
ladies  were  provided  with  seats  borrowed  from  a  neighboring 
schoolhouse.  To  the  left  was  a  rough  pine  table,  forming  the 
four  sides  of  a  square,  each  side  of  which  was  two  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  long.  It  was  calculated  that  one  thousand  people 
could  at  one  time  dine  around  this  "ample  board."  At  some 
distance  from  the  stand  a  deep  trench,  three  hundred  feet  long, 
had  been  dug.  This  trench  was  filled  from  end  to  end  with 
glowing  coals ;  and  suspended  over  them  on  horizontal  poles 
were  the  carcasses  of  forty  animals,  —  sheep,  hogs,  oxen,  and 
deer,  — roasting  over  the  slow  fire.  The  animal  being  skinned 
and  cleaned,  the  whole  carcass  is  placed  about  two  feet  above 
the  coals,  and  cooked  in  its  entirety. 

The  process  is  slow,  taking  twelve  hours  to  cook  an  ox. 
Butter,  with  a  mixture  of  pepper,  salt,  and  vinegar,  is  poured 
on  the  meat  as  it  is  being  cooked.  It  is  claimed  that  this 
primitive  mode  of  preparation  is  the  perfection  of  cookery,  and 
that  no  meat  tastes  so  sweet  as  that  which  is  barbecued. 

When  sufficiently 'roasted,  the  carcasses  are  carried  on  poles, 
manned  by  stalwart  negroes,  and  placed  on  small  tables  inside 
the  square  formed  by  the  dining-tables.  Here  a  force  of 
carvers  soon  cut  the  meat  into  slices ;  others  distribute  it  on 
plates,  and  arrange  these  plates  on  the  long  table,  a  huge  slice 


438  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

of  corn-bread  being  apportioned  to  each  plate.  That  is  all. 
The  dinner  is  served.  No  long  bill  of  fare  to  hesitate  over ; 
no  knives,  no  forks,  no  napkins  ;  nothing  but  bread  and  meat. 
Water  in  barrels  was  brought  from  a  spring  at  the  foot  of  the 
hill.  These  barrels  placed  around  the  tables  at  intervals,  a 
single  drinking-cup  being  attached  to  each,  provided  the  guests 
with  the  only  beverage  allowed  on  the  grounds. 

The  ladies  were  admitted  to  the  table  first,  and  dined  stand- 
ing up.  The  doctor  was  horrified  to  see  an  excited  female 
leave  the  table,  approach  a  male  friend,  and,  after  whispering 
in  his  ear,  return  to  the  table  with  a  villanous-looking  bowie- 
knife,  ten  inches  long,  in  her  hand.  The  doctor  thought  he 
detected  fire  in  her  eye,  and  intimated,  that,  if  she  were  not 
quickly  suppressed,  blood  would  be  spilled.  But  there  was  no 
murder  in  her  heart.  She  merely  borrowed  the  knife  that  she 
might  cut  her  "chunk"  of  meat  into  reasonable  mouthfuls. 

After  the  ladies  had  dined,  the  men  were  turned  loose  on 
the  eatables.  To  see  them,  in  their  rude  playfulness,  scram- 
ble for  a  choice  rib,  — the  victor  going  off  gnawing  it ;  the  un- 
successful one  pouncing  on  a  waiter  carrying  a  large  trayful  of 
beef,  and  relieving  him  of  his  load  in  a  second,  —  forced  one  to 
think  of  one  o'clock  in  a  menagerie. 

There  was  enough  and  to  spare  for  all  the  vast  crowd ;  and  I 
would  be  lacking  in  my  duty  as  a  veracious  reporter  of  the 
event  if  I  failed  to  say,  that  "the  hospitable  board  fairly  groaned 
beneath  the  load  of  good  things,"  etc.  The  dinner  was  free  to 
all ;  and  more  than  twenty  thousand  greasy  fingers  testified 
their  owners'  appreciation  of  the  eatables,  and  gave  at  least 
one-third  of  the  guests  a  reasonable  excuse  to  get  off  that  ven- 
erable truism  about  fingers  being  made  before  forks,  —  to  get 
it  off,  too,  as  if  it  were  a  happy  and  original  thought  that  had 
just  then  occurred  to  them. 

After  dinner  the  speeches.  The  speakers  were  a  general, 
a  colonel,  and  a  judge.  The  general  was  a  candidate  for  the 
State  Legislature  ;  the  colonel,  for  the  United-States  Senate ; 
and  the  judge,  for  Congress. 

There  were  several  brilliant  pyrotechnical  speeches  of  the 
usual  stump  type.  They  did  not  fail  to  speak  of  the  palladium 


THE  SIERRA   MOJADA   MINES.  439 

of  American  liberty,  nor  to  refer  to  Runnymede  and  Magna 
Charta.  They  dwelt  strongly  on  "  this,  the  most  vital  crisis  in 
the  history  of  the  country."  They  neglected  not  to  prove, — 
at  least  to  their  own  satisfaction, — that,  if  they  should  be 
elected,  there  would  be  no  question  as  to  the  country  being 
saved.  They  stated,  that,  if  not  elected,  they  would  decline 
being  responsible  for  the  consequences. 

The  young  men  made  frequent  excursions  "  to  see  the  spring  " 
at  the  foot  of  the  hill.  I  never  knew  a  spring  so  attractive,  or 
one  that  received  more  attention.  Some  young  men,  and  old 
ones  too,  not  satisfied  with  one  sight,  returned  several  times  to 
see  the  spring,  and  seemed  to  become  more  exhilarated,  and 
more  enthusiastic  on  the  subject  of  its  beauties,  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  their  pilgrimages.  Perhaps  the  waters  were 
of  a  medicinal  character,  or  —  but  why  conjecture?  Doubtless 
those  who  have  attended  a  barbecue  could  account  for  the 
phenomenon. 

While  we  were  in  San  Antonio,  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
talk  about  the  Sierra  Mojada  silver-mines.  The  location  of 
these  mines  is  in  Mexico,  some  two  hundred  miles  from  the 
Texas  frontier.  They  had  only  been  discovered  a  few  months 
before  we  visited  San  Antonio.  Every  one  had  something  to 
say  about  them.  It  was  a  topic  all  could  express  themselves 
intelligibly  on,  as  no  one  knew  any  thing  positive  about  the 
mines.  The  newspapers,  by  publishing  fabulous  reports  of 
their  richness,  did  much  to  encourage  the  Mojada  enthusiasm. 
After  deducting  ninety-nine  per  cent,  however,  for  exaggera- 
tion, enough  remained  over  to  justify  the  most  matter-of-fact 
man  in  the  world  in  believing  that  it  required  very  little  exer- 
tion, after  getting  to  the  mines,  to  enable  a  man  to  acquire 
sufficient  wealth  to  satisfy  his  wants,  and  even  to  run  a  daily 
newspaper  if  necessary. 

According  to  one  account,  a  one-armed  Mexican,  suffering 
from  partial  paralysis  of  the  lower  limbs,  with  the  aid  of  an  old 
barrel  and  thirty  pounds  of  quicksilver,  in  two  months  acquired 
enough  money  to  have  elected  him  to  the  United-States  Senate 
from  Louisiana.  It  must  be  remembered  that  a  Mexican  does 
most  of  his  hard  work  lying  on  a  blanket  in  the  shade,  with  a 


440 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


cigarette  between  his  teeth.  (When  a  Mexican  is  without  a 
cigarette  in  his  mouth,  he  is  either  asleep  or  dead.)  It  was 
logically  argued,  that,  if  an  able-bodied  American  were  to  go 
to  the  mines,  he  would  have  to  put  a  good  deal  of  constraint 
on  himself  to  prevent  the  acquisition  of  excessive  wealth,  and, 
further,  that  a  very  industrious  American,  unless  he  had  as- 
sistance in  spending  the  silver,  would  be  tolerably  well  off  be- 
fore he  got  within  a  hundred  miles  of  where  the  silver-mines 
were. 

So  glowing  were  the  accounts  of  the  richness  of  the  mines, 
that  impecunious  men  who  contemplated  visiting  them,  when 

tendered  lucrative  posi- 
tions in  San  Antonio, 
could  not  believe  that  the 
parties  offering  them  were 
serious. 

Gen.  John  R.  Baylor,  a 
gentleman  of  considerable 
mining  experience  and 
much  humor,  after  listen- 
ing to  a  crowd  of  Mojada 
enthusiasts,  made  them  a 
really  splendid  offer,  on 
condition  that  they  would 
give  up  their  Sierra  Moja- 
da trip.  But  they  laughed 
him  to  scorn. 

Said  he,  "Boys,  I  have 
a  good  thing  out  on  my  ranch,  and  I  want  some  of  you  to  come 
and  get  a  share  of  it.  I've  discovered  a  mountain  of  solid 
silver.  It  is  not  a  very  large  mountain,  but  there  is  a  great 
deal  more  there  than  I  want.  I  have  got  a  machine  like  a  big 
plane  :  it  is  about  the  size  of  a  large  sled.  I  start  it  from  the 
top  of  the  hill,  and  its  own  weight  carries  it  to  the  bottom.  It 
cuts  a  shaving  of  pure  silver  three  feet  wide  and  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  long.  As  I  said,  there  is  more  of  it  than 
I  need,  and  I'll  be  obliged  if  you  will  come  and  haul  some  of  it 
away.  All  you  have  to  do  is  to  saw  those  shavings  up,  or  cut 


CUTTING    OUT    SILVER    WITH    AN    AXE. 


A   SIERRA   MOJADA   SUFFERER.  441 

them  with  an  axe,  into  suitable  lengths  for  a  wagon,  and  haul 
them  to  town.  I'll  lend  you  my  team." 

They  did  not  accept  the  general's  offer,  as  they  felt  that  they 
could  do  better  at  the  Mojada.  To  some  persons  the  statement  of 
Gen.  Baylor  might  appear  to  be  a  little  strained,  but  it  did  not 
so  appear  to  those  who  had  read  in  the  newspapers  about  the 
richness  of  the  Mojada  mines.  They  thought  that  the  general 
was  underrating  the  real  worth  of  his  mines,  that  he  might  deter 
prospectors  from  visiting  his  property  until  he  would  have  time 
to  get  a  land-certificate  laid  over  the  adjacent  landscape. 

If  any  one  had  offered  one  of  these  early  Mojada  pilgrims 
Aladdin's  lamp,  provided  he  would  not  go  on  to  the  mines,  he 
would  have  rejected  the  offer,  and  suggested  that  it  be  given 
to  the  poor.  According  to  the  statement  of  one  young  man, 
the  ore  of  the  Mojada  mines  averaged  two  hundred  and  fifty 
per  cent  pure  silver ;  which  seemed  a  good  deal  to  a  man  who 
had  not  studied  figures. 

I  saw  one  victim  of  the  Mojada  fever,  poor  Brooks  ;  and 
he  looked  miserable  enough  to  draw  tears  from  a  tax-col- 
lector. His  clothes,  of  which  he  had  too  few,  wore  an  un- 
healthy look.  His  boots  were  in  a  wrecked  condition  ;  while 
he  himself  looked  like  those  patent-medicine  advertisement 
pictures  of  a  man,  with  "  Before  Taking  "  under  them.  He  was 
indeed  a  loathsome  spectacle. 

"  What's  the  matter  with  the  distinguished  citizen  ? "  I  asked. 

Said  he,  "I  am  —  that  is,  what  is  left  of  me  is  —  a  Sierra 
Mojada  sufferer." 

"  Tell  me  about  it  confidentially.  I  only  want  to  publish  it 
in  the  Northern  papers." 

Said  he,  "I  haven't  had  my  supper  since  day  before  yester- 
day yet,  and  I'm  beginning  to  feel  weak.  I'm  afraid  I  have 
not  strength  enough  to  hold  out." 

It  took  two  dollars'  worth  of  provisions  to  put  that  wreck  in 
a  condition  to  talk. 

"You  know  I  had  a  good  position  with  Jones  &  Co.  I 
weighed  a  hundred  and  eighty  pounds.  I  wore  good  clothes, 
and  smoked  fine  cigars.  Now  look  at  me !  But  I'll  tell  you 
how  it  was.  When  the  excitement  first  broke  out,  I  made  in- 


442 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


quiry,  and  found  there  was  any  quantity  of  silver  ore  there,  just 
waiting  for  me  :  so  I  told  Jones  &  Co.  that  I  could  dispense 
with  their  services,  —  that  their  resignations  would  be  accepted. 
I  mean  that  I  threw  up  my  position,  and  with  it  ninety  dollars  a 
month.  I  sent  my  furniture  to  auction,  and  bought  an  ambu- 
lance and  team,  a  Winchester  rifle,  a  demijohn,  and  other  camp- 
ing utensils,  bid  good-by  to  all  my  friends,  —  except  those  I 

was  owing  money  to,  —  and 
was  all  fixed  ready  to  go  next 
morning,  when  I  met  a  relia- 
ble man  right  from  there." 

"  Did  he  encourage  you  to 
go  ?  " 

"  Well,  no  —  not  exactly. 
He  told  me  there  were  no 
mines  there  at  all ;  and  you 
couldn't  get  to  them,  because 
they  were  in  the  midst  of  an 
inaccessible  desert  never  yet 
trodden  by  the  foot  of  man ; 
and,  when  you  did  get  there, 
you  had  to  go  twenty-five 
miles  to  get  water  to  make 
coffee*;  and,  when  you  got  to 
where  the  water  was,  you 
never  got  back  again,  because 
the  water  was  so  unhealthy, 
that  Americans  died  in  terri- 
ble agony  in  two  hours  ;  and 
there  was  no  use  going  there 
with  less  capital  than  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  anyhow.  I  asked  the  man  if  there  were  no 
kind  people  at  the  mines  to  help  a  poor  stranger  along ;  and  he 
said  the  only  friend  the  American  had  out  there  was  the  Lipan 
Indian,  who  usually  knocked  him  on  the  head  to  save  him  from 
perishing  of  thirst  and  hunger.  The  man  went  on  to  say,  that 
if  he  were  to  go  into  that  country,  and  the  Indians  failed  to  kill 
him,  he  would  never  forgive  them  for  their  inhumanity  as  long 


A    SIERRA    MOJADA    SUFFERER. 


A   SIERRA   MOJADA    SUFFERER.  443 

as  he  lived,  so  dreadful  were  the  sufferings  of  those  who  sur- 
vived." 

"  Then,  I  suppose  you  thought,  with  the  poet,  that  '  'twere 
better  to  bear  the  ills  we  have,  than  fly  to  others  we  are  not 
acquainted  with  except  by  reputation  '  ? " 

"  Yes,"  continued  Brooks  with  a  sigh ;  "  I  thought  over  the 
matter,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  I  had  better  stay  in 
San  Antonio.  It  is  true,  beer  has  gone  up  to  ten  cents  a  glass, 
and  the  mud  is  awful ;  but  life  is  sweet.  At  the  Mojada  I  would 
not  only  miss  all  those  little  comforts,  but  I  might  find  myself 
in  the  hands  of  some  Mexican  or  Indian  ;  and  I  am  very  much 
attached  to  myself,  I  am.  So  I  sold  out  the  demijohn  and  the 
rest  of  the  outfit,  and  bought  some  fresh  furniture.  I  thought 
I  would  give  my  old  employers  a  chance  to  re-establish  com- 
mercial relations  ;  but  they  refused  to  accept  the  appointment, 
so  I  was  out  about  five  hundred  dollars." 

"Yes.  But  that  was  better  than  going  to  the  Mojada,  and 
leaving  your  bones  to  bleach  among  the  rocks." 

Brooks  heaved  another  sigh,  and  continued,  — 

"  About  the  time  I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  stay  here  for- 
ever, and  be  an  old  landmark,  I  got  a  letter  from  Tom  Jones, 
telling  me  there  was  no  exaggeration  at  all ;  that  he  owned 
seventeen  mines,  and  half-interest  in  forty-five  more ;  that  his 
poorest  mine  yielded  him  twenty-five  marcos  of  pure  silver  to 
the  carga,  which  is  equivalent  to  seventeen  ounces  to  the  pound 
of  ore.  No  capital  was  needed  at  all.  The  climate  was  healthy, 
plenty  of  babbling  springs  of  pure  water,  etc.  So  I  sent  my  fur- 
niture once  more  to  auction,  and  bought  a  new  demijohn,  wagon, 
team,  etc." 

"  Well,  Brooks,  I  hope  you  got  off  this  time.  This  is  rather 
monotonous,  waiting  to  see  you  out  of  town." 

"  I  can't  keep  the  run  of  how  many  times  I  sold  my  furni- 
ture, and  bought  fresh  teams,  losing  money  all  the  time.  On 
Monday  I  would  hear  that  the  Mexican  Government  didn't  want 
any  but  Americans  at  the  mines;  that  Americans  were  ap- 
pointed to  all  the  fat  offices ;  that  no  Mexicans  were  allowed 
to  locate  a  mine  until  the  Americans  had  first  choice ;  that 
President  Diaz  had  sent  Mexican  soldiers  to  the  mines  for  no 


444  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

other  purpose  than  to  protect  the  Americans.  Then  I  would 
sell  out  at  a  sacrifice,  and  get  ready  to  start.  On  Tuesday  I 
would  read  in  a  paper  that  the  Mexicans  were  surrounding  the 
Gringos,  preparatory  to  cutting  their  throats  ;  that  two  dis- 
tinguished Mexican  generals  were  trying  to  see  which  could 
get  to  the  Mojada  first,  so  as  to  claim  the  honor  of  having 
slaughtered  the  Gringos  ;  and  then  I  would  make  up  my  mind 
to  stay  here  until  the  grave  claimed  me.  And  so  it  was  kept 
up  until  I  had  spent  all  my  money." 

"And  you  have  not  left  town  yet  ?  " 

"  I  got  off  at  last.  When  I  got  to  Peidras  Negras,  the  Mexi- 
can custom-house  officers  arrested  me  because  I  did  not  have 
enough  money  to  pay  the  duty  on  my  outfit.  There  is  a  duty 
of  two  hundred  dollars  on  every  foot  a  horse  has.  The  duty 
on  the  harness  is  only  twenty-five  dollars  to  the  running  inch. 
Then  I  was  to  give  bond  not  to  take  any  silver  out  of  the 
country,  and  not  to  hurt  any  of  the  Indians  who  might  want 
to  scalp  me.  As  usual,  I  failed  for  lack  of  capital.  My  prop- 
erty was  seized  as  a  pledge  of  good  faith,  but  I  was  so  fortu- 
nate as  to  make  my  escape.  I  walked  all  the  way  back,  feeding 
on  mesquite  beans  and  prickly  pears.  When  I  got  to  town 
nobody  knew  me :  at  least,  they  did  not  show  any  signs  of  it 
—  except  the  police." 

Statements  regarding  the  first  discovery  of  the  Sierra  Mojada 
mines  are  very  contradictory,  and  are  all  more  or  less  romantic. 
According  to  one  account,  a  Mexican  lieutenant,  chasing  In- 
dians, was  the  discoverer.  The  improbability  that  this  story 
bears  on  its  face  is  somewhat  mitigated  by  the  subsequent 
declaration  that  the  discovery  was  made  by  the  lieutenant 
coming  suddenly  on  an  old  Indian  who  was  melting  silver 
bullets  in  a  cave. 

Another  version  of  the  discovery  says,  that  an  old  Californian 
named  Bosse,  having  had  a  great  deal  of  experience  in  finding 
gold-mines,  started  out  from  Chihuahua  in  search  of  mines. 
He  continued  his  search,  without  finding  any  thing  except 
prickly  pears  to  live  on.  He  at  last  arrived  at  a  mountain 
stream  with  a  great  deal  of  gold  in  it.  The  only  mining  im- 
plement he  had  was  a  tin  cup,  with  which  he  washed  out  the 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MINES.  445 

dust.  The  Indians,  who  always  have  some  r6le  to  play  in 
mining  matters,  were  so  unsociable  that  Bosse  had  to  leave. 
The  only  weak  part  about  this  story  is,  that  the  inventor  sup- 
posed the  Mojada  mines  to  have  been  gold-mines,  whereas 
there  is  no  gold  there  at  all.  Under  the  circumstances,  we 
have  come  to  the  conclusion  not  to  rely  on  any  one  for  the 
true  story  of  the  discovery  of  these  mines,  but  to  invent  one 
of  our  own.  "The  gods  help  those  who  help  themselves." 
The  following  is  the  true  story  of  the  discovery  of  the  Mojada 
mines. 

On  a  sultry  day  in  August  of  the  year  18 — ,  an  American 
named  Parker  was  travelling  with  his  family,  in  an  ambulance, 
through  the  State  of  Coahuila,  Mexico.  They  were  travelling 
from  California  to  Texas,  via  Mexico.  The  family  consisted  of 
Parker,  whose  Christian  name  was  William,  Mrs.  Parker,  five 
young  Parkers,  and  Mrs.  Grimes,  the  aged  mother  of  Mrs. 
Parker. 

When  near  the  boundary  of  the  State  of  Nueva  Leon,  the 
party  was  attacked  by  Indians.  Parker  kept  the  Indians  at 
bay  for  a  time  with  his  rifle  ;  but  finally,  his  ammunition  becom- 
ing scarce,  he  was  forced  to  retreat  towards  the  Rio  Grande. 
He  was  followed  by  the  Indians,  whose  bullets  struck  the 
wagon  every  few  minutes.  Parker  had  tied  his  mother-in-law, 
the  aforesaid  Mrs.  Grimes,  to  the  back  part  of  the  wagon,  so 
that  she  would  not  distract  his  attention  from  the  horses,  which 
it  was  necessary  to  whip.  He  thought  her  appearance  would 
terrify  the  Indians,  and  prevent  them  from  approaching  closely. 
She  would  also,  at  the  same  time,  be  useful  in  stopping  the 
bullets  that  were  coming  in  alarmingly  quick  succession.  The 
consequence  was,  that  Mrs.  Grimes  and  the  wagon  were  both 
riddled  with  bullets,  although  the  Indians  did  not  appoach 
closer  to  the  wagon  than  a  hundred  yards. 

Parker  was  very  much  discouraged,  as  the  wagon  was  a  per- 
fectly new  one,  and  wagons  were  expensive  in  that  country. 
The  Indians  retired  ;  and  Parker  halted  as  soon  as  it  was  safe 
to  do  so,  and  examined  his  losses.  He  found  they  were  slight. 
His  mother-in-law  was  dead,  and  the  wagon  was  not  material- 
ally  injured.  Upon  examining  the  wagon,  he  found  several 


446 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


silver  bullets  embedded  in  the  spokes  of  the  wheels.  He  esti- 
mated, that,  if  the  wheels  had  been  properly  assayed,  they 
would  have  yielded  two  hundred  ounces  to  the  ton.  He  had 
no  means  of  ascertaining  what  his  mother-in-law  would  have 
yielded,  but  she  was  very  rich.  She  was  buried  in  a  beauti- 
ful canyon  in  the 

valley  of  the  Rio        I  — i 

Grande.  Parker 
used  to  say  after- 
wards that  no- 
body ever  knew 
her  real  worth. 


PARKER'S    WIFE'S    MOTHER. 


Parker  was  anxious  to  know  where  the  Indians  obtained  the 
material  they  made  their  bullets  of,  but  he  kept  the  secret  of 
the  silver  bullet  for  many  years.  Finally  he  confided  in  a 
man  named  Brown,  and  the  two  started  in  a  buggy  for  the 
place  where  Parker  met  the  Indians.  It  is  believed,  that,  if 
they  had  succeeded  in  reaching  it,  they  would  have  discovered 
the  Sierra  Mojada  mines  ;  but  as  they  never  returned,  and  have 


LOST  MINES. 


447 


not  been  heard  of  since,  the  whole  matter  is  involved  in  dense 
obscurity  and  impenetrable  mystery.  It  is  almost  certain, 
however,  that  they  met  the  Indians.  We  repeat  that  this  is 
the  true  story  of  the  discovery  of  the  Sierra  Mojada  mines, 
and  we  caution  the  public  to  beware  of  spurious  imitations. 

Various  traditions  exist  regarding  lost  gold  and  silver  mines 
in  Western  Texas,  —  mines  of  extravagant  richness,  formerly 
worked  by  the  Spaniards,  but  the  exact  location  of  which  has 
been  forgotten.  No  country  in  the  world,  so  far  as  heard  from, 
is  as  rich  in  lost  mines  as  Western  Texas.  An  old,  abandoned 
mine  is  always  a  fabulously  rich  one.  Another  singular  feature 
of  a  lost  mine  is,  that  it  can  never  be  found.  Considering  the 
number  of  old  mines  that  used  to  be  worked  by  the  Spaniards, 
according  to  tradition,  one  would  suppose  that  it  would  be 
dangerous  to  leave  the  beaten  road  in  travelling,  for  fear  of 
falling  into  one. 

The  reading  public  would  cease  to  be  worried  about  these 
old  mines,  were  it  not  for  the  press  and  the  inevitable  old 
frontiersman.  Every  once  in  a  while  some  seedy  reporter  is 
short  of  items.  But  the  printer  must  have  copy  :  the  paper 
must  be  filled  up.  Under  these  circumstances  the  reporter 
drags  an  old  inhabitant  into  a  saloon  He  fills  the  old  man 
with  beer  and  free  lunch  ;  and  he,  in  his  turn,  fills  the  reporter 
with  a  story  about  a  lost  mine.  As  a  general  thing,  the  infor- 
mation imparted  to  the  reporter  is  very  exhaustive  —  particularly 
to  the  readers  of  the  paper.  What  the  old  inhabitant  does  not 
know  about  the  alleged  mines  is  very  important  and  voluminous. 
The  narrative  does  not  suffer  on  this  account ;  for,  what  the  old 
inhabitant  does  not  know,  the  reporter  is  ignorant  of,  and  adds 
it  to  his  statement  in  the  newspaper.  When  the  old  man  has 
got  warmed  up,  and  his  imagination  has  begun  to  soar,  he  will 
be  delivered  of  tales  of  pure  fiction  that  would  make  a  real- 
estate  agent  envious  enough  to  saw  his  own  tongue  off. 

Thus  it  is  that  in  Western  Texas  there  is  such  a  wealth  of 
lost  mines  in  the  ordinary  run  of  conversation.  Every  old 
citizen  has  a  lost  Spanish-mine  story.  All  these  legends  have 
a  common  basis.  The  pioneer's  father  knew  an  old  Mexican 
who  lived  near  San  Antonio ;  his  profession  being  the  propaga- 


448  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

tiorr  of  goats  on  the  Chapuderas,  and  whose  father,  or  grand- 
uncle  on  his  mother's  left  side,  knew  an  Indian,  who,  wishing 
to  pay  him  for  a  service  rendered,  promised  to  show  him  the 
mines.  Before  the  time  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise 
arrived,  said  Indian  died.  Thus  the  secret  of  the  exact  loca- 
tion of  the  mines  rests  in  the  Indian's  grave.  A  hint  was, 
however,  dropped  on  the  deathbed  of  the  father  or  grand- 
uncle,  and  picked  up  after  the  funeral  by  the  old  citizen  ; 
and  it  caused  him  to  feel  certain  that  "  the  mines  are  not 
located  jn  Presidio  County." 

The  clew  is  of  about  as  satisfactory  a  character  as  the  kind 
policemen  surfer  so  much  from,  or  as  that  given  by  Sandy 
McPherson  to  a  brother  Scot. 

"  Sandy,  mon,  but  that's  a  bonny  gun  yer  carryin'." 

"Ay,  'deed  it  is." 

"  Whaur  are  ye  takin'  it  tae  ?  " 

"Ower  by  there." 

"An'  wha's  it  for  ?  " 

"  D'ye  ken  the  eeditor  of  the  Glasgae  "  Herald  "  ? 

"Ay,  mon,  that  I  do." 

"Weel,  it's  no  for  him." 

There  is,  however,  no  doubt  but  at  some  time  in  the  early 
days  of  the  Mexican  occupation  of  the  then  province  of  Texas, 
gold  and  silver  mines  were  discovered ;  but  whether  they  were 
developed  to  any  extent  or  not,  we  cannot  learn.  In  proof  of 
the  fact  that  there  were  at  least  discoveries,  I  quote  the  fol- 
lowing correspondence,  copied  from  the  original  documents 
formerly  on  file  among  the  Mexican  archives  at  Monterey  :  — 

To  his  Majesty  the  Emperor. 

Salvador  Carrasco,  the  humblest  subject  of  your  Majesty,  with  pro- 
found respect,  says  that  about  forty  leagues,  more  or  less,  from  the  city 
of  San  Antonio  de  Bexar,  there  are  rich  gold  and  silver  mines,  which, 
owing  to  the  occuption  of  that  region  by  hostile  Indians,  have  not  been 
explored. 

Petitioner  has  thought  proper  to  communicate  this  information  to  your 
Majesty,  that  proceedings  may  be  had,  and  the  proper  steps  taken,  to 
explore  and  work  said  mines ;  which  can  only  be  accomplished  under 


HIS  IMPERIAL  MAJESTY,   ITURBIDE.  449 

the  protection  of  a  military  escort,  on  account  of  the  Comanches  who 
infest  the  provinces  of  Coahuila  and  Texas. 

Said  mines  are  called  Los  Almagres,  and  are  situated  in  the  territory 
of  San  Saba,  in  the  province  of  Texas.  Some  persons  residing  in  Bexar 
have  bought  specimens  of  gold  and  silver  ore,  but  have  not  devoted 
themselves  to  the  working  of  the  mines  through  fear  of  the  Indians. 

With  the  greatest  respect,  I  entreat  your  Majesty  to  dictate  the  neces- 
sary measures,  in  order  that  the  said  mines  may  be  explored  as  soon  as 
your  Majesty  thinks  proper. 

(Signed)  SALVADOR  CARRASCO. 

MEXICO,  May  25,  1822. 

OFFICE  OF  THE  CAPTAIN-GENERAL  OF  THE 
EASTERN  AND  WESTERN  INTERNAL  PROVINCES. 

The  annexed  memorial  of  Don  Salvador  Carrasco,  a  resident  of  Rio 
Grande,  to  his  imperial  Majesty,  shows,  that  about  forty  leagues  off  San 
Antonio  de  Bexar,  at  the  place  named  Los  Almagres,  there  are  gold  and 
silver  mines  which  have  not  been  worked,  owing  to  Indian  hostilities. 

His  Majesty  expects  that  you  will  report  to  me  on  this  subject.  May 
God  preserve  your  life  for  many  years  ! 

(Signed)  ANASTASIO  BUSTAMENTE. 

To  Col.  CASPAR  LOPEZ,  Commanding  Provinces  of  Coahuila  and  Texas,  Saltillo. 
MEXICO,  July  24,  1822. 

His  Excellency,  the  captain-general  of  these  provinces,  by  a  superior 
communication  of  the  24th  of  July  last,  informs  me  that  Don  Salvador 
Carrasco,  a  resident  of  Rio  Grande,  has  addressed  a  memorial  to  his 
imperial  Majesty  the  Emperor,  stating,  that  about  forty  leaguess  off  San 
Antonio  de  Bexar,  at  the  place  called  Almagres,  there  are  to  be  found 
gold  and  silver  mines,  upon  which  subject  his  Majesty  desires  to  obtain 
the  proper  information.  To  that  end  I  address  you  the  present  com- 
munication. May  God  preserve  your  life  for  many  years  ! 

(Signed) 

CASPAR  LOPEZ, 

Colonel  commanding  Coahuila  and  Texas. 
To  the  Governor  of  Texas. 
SALTILLO,  Aug.  8,  1822. 

In  compliance  with  your  instructions,  I  have  made  inquiries  concern- 
ing the  mines  at  Los  Almagres,  upon  which  Don  Salvador  Carrasco  has 
29 


450  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

presented  a  memorial  to  his  Majesty ;  and  I  have  ordered  that  one  of 
the  persons  who  is  acquainted  with  that  locality  shall  proceed  to  explore 
the  same,  and  bring  specimens  of  the  ores  to  be  found.  As  soon  as  this 
is  accomplished,  I  will  be  able  to  make  the  proper  report.  May  God 
preserve  your  life  many  years  ! 

(Signed)  JOSE  FELIX  TRESPALACIOS, 

Governor  of  Texas. 

To  Col.  CASPAR  LOPEZ,  Commanding  Provinces. 
BEXAR,  Nov.  13,  1822. 

To  his  imperial  Majesty. 

Sebastian  Rodriguez  Biedma,  a  captain  in  the  regular  army  of  the 
eastern  internal  provinces,  and  director  of  the  military  academy  es- 
tablished at  Monclova  for  the  instruction  of  Spanish  cadets,  with  great 
respect  states,  — 

That  upon  the  San  Saba  hills,  course  north-west  from  San  Antonio  de 
Bexar,  and  about  forty-five  leagues  from  said  town,  there  are  mines  of 
unsurpassing  richness,  known  by  the  name  of  Los  Almagres,  which, 
judging  from  their  outward  appearance,  promise  more  wealth  than  that 
produced  by  any  of  the  most  famous  of  St.  Luis  Potosi,  Zacatecas,  and 
Guanajuato.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  make  this  statement,  being  convinced 
of  that  fact  by  my  own  eyes ;  and  therefore  I  do  not  doubt  that  the 
information  given  on  the  subject,  both  by  the  Dipudado  of  the  province 
and  the  Ayuntamiento,  will  correspond  with  the  assertions  made  in  this 
report. 

Some  other  persons  have  seen  the  above-mentioned  mines,  and 
brought  specimens  of  the  ore,  taken  from  veins  on  the  surface,  which 
have  been  tried,  and  found  to  yield  much  silver.  I  believe  that  it  will 
not  be  necessary  to  make  any  other  expenses  for  the  working  of  said 
mines  than  those  for  the  purchase  of  implements  and  utensils,  and  the 
erection  of  some  cabins  for  the  miners.  I  am  satisfied  that  the  imme- 
diate yield  of  these  mines  will  be  more  than  sufficient  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  the  work. 

I  heard  of  the  richness  of  these  mines  since  I  was  stationed  at  Cor- 
pus Christi.  I  afterward  saw  some  specimens  at  San  Antonio  de  Bexar, 
and  I  assayed  them  with  the  best  results.  I  was  then  in  active  service, 
with  no  influence  to  promote  the  undertaking,  and  of  course  did  not 
take  any  steps  in  the  matter ;  but  having  recently,  under  the  accom- 
panying commission  (which  I  desire  to  be  returned  to  me),  proceeded 
to  the  San  Saba  hills  to  make  the  proper  exploration,  I  have  to  report, 


FOR   THE  PUBLIC   GOOD.  451 

not  only  that  said  mines  exist,  but  that  I  believe  them  to  be  of  great 
richness. 

Therefore  I  pray  that  your  imperial  Majesty  may  order  that  a  detach- 
ment of  three  hundred  and  fifty  cavalry  be  stationed  at  the  place  called 
Los  Almagres,  with  the  object  of  protecting  the  new  settlement  to  be 
made.  As  soon  as  this  is  ordered,  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  prov- 
inces will  congregate,  and  build  up  a  town.  However  great  the  cares  of 
the  government  may  be  under  the  present  circumstances,  the  small  num- 
ber of  three  hundred  and  fifty  men  will  not  much  diminish  the  forces 
of  the  empire,  nor  increase  its  expenses.  The  latter  are  comparatively 
small,  if  we  consider  the  great  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  settle- 
ment of  Los  Almagres,  which  will  undoubtedly  be  followed  by  the  sub- 
jection of  the  Indians,  the  increase  of  our  population,  and  the  circulation 
of  silver. 

The  undersigned  does  not  aspire  to  any  other  glory  than  the  one  he 

will  gain  by  seeing  his  plan  carried  out. 

SEBASTIAN  RODRIGUEZ. 

MONCLOVA,  Jan.  22,  1823. 

What  an  unsophisticated  people,  and  what  pro  bono  publico 
subjects  did  his  Majesty,  Iturbide  of  Mexico,  reign  over  in  the 
year  A.D.  1822  !  It  is  really  painful  to  think  of  the  "  humblest 
subject"  giving  himself  away  in  that  simple-minded  and  disin- 
terested manner,  —  taking  the  very  bread  out  of  his  children's 
mouths  as  it  were.  Why  did  he  not  keep  quiet  about  the  "  rich 
gold  and  silver  mines  "  until  he  could  get  into  the  United  States, 
and  wait  until  the  Mexican  Government  offered  a  reward  for  the 
discovery  of  the  mines  ?  And  look  at  Bustamente  and  Lopez 
and  old  Trespalacios, — all  just  as  distressingly  honest,  and 
anxious  only  for  the  increase  of  the  circulation  of  silver  and 
gold,  and  for  the  providential  preservation  of  each  other's  lives. 
Under  like  circumstances,  the  humblest  American  citizen  would 
have  been  much  more  frugal  in  the  matter  of  disseminating 
information  regarding  his  knowledge  of  the  rich  gold  and  sil- 
ver mines.  He  would  have  enticed  some  Indian  into  a  fight, 
allowed  himself  to  be  scalped,  or  otherwise  ill-used  ;  then  he 
would  have  written  to  the  papers  sanguinary  accounts  of 
"More  Indian  Deviltries."  He  would  have  forwarded  to  the 
government  petitions  from  "the  bleeding  frontier."  These, 
with  a  little  political  influence,  would  have  caused  a  peace- 


452 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


loving  and  long-suffering  government  to  send  out  an  assort- 
ment of  Indian  agents  and  a  limited  supply  of  troops.  The 
result  would  have  been,  that  the  whiskey  supplied  to  the  Indians 
would  have  killed  one  half  of  the  hostiles  ;  and,  the  other  half 
being  engaged  pursuing  the  United-States  troops,  the  field 
would  have  been  clear.  Then  the  humblest  citizen  would  have 
pre-empted  the  richest  of  the  gold-mines ;  and,  inside  of  six 
weeks,  two  hundred  miners  would  have  been  depleting  the 
auriferous  pockets  of  mother-earth  of  her  golden  treasure, 
and  seventy-five  stage-robbers  would  have  been  acting  the  same 
part  by  the  passengers  and  the  United-States  mail  on  the  new 
stage-route.  All  this  would  have  gone  to  prove  the  fact  that 
the  northern  races  are  always  ahead  of  those  of  warmer  lati- 
tudes in  missionary  spirit  and  in  all  other  matters  of  enterprise 
and  progress. 


WEST  OF  SAN  ANTONIO. 


453 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 


ROM  San  Antonio  west,  the 
country  is  rough  and  broken,  — 
hills  and  valleys,  sterile  ridges, 
and  rocky  gorges.  Almost  all  the 
country  is  devoted  to  stock-raising. 
Settlements  are  few  and  far  be- 
tween. Here  is  a  Mexican  jacal, 
a  little  patch  of  corn,  and  a  score 
of  goats ;  ten  miles  farther  there 
is  the  farm  of  a  German  or  Bohe- 
mian ;  and,  twenty  miles  beyond, 
we  arrive  at  a  sheep-ranch  :  so  it  is 
all  the  way  to  the  Rio  Grande.  A 
large  portion  of  the  land  is  suita- 
ble for  agricultural  purposes,  but 
*  its  great  distance  from  market  pre- 
vents farmers  from  settling  on  it.  The 
principal  growth  is  the  mesquite-grass, 
the  prickly  pear,  and  the  mesquite-tree. 
We  found  the  reporter  a  valuable  addition  to 
our  party.  He  had  lived  a  long  time  in  Texas, 
and  abounded  in  information  and  statistics  regarding  the  coun- 
try, the  people,  products,  etc.  His  journalistic  experience  was 
rich  and  varied.  He  enlivened  our  journey  with  shrewd  re- 
marks and  quaint  anecdotes  ;  but,  better  than  all,  he  knew  how 
to  cook  a  biscuit.  As  we  camped  out,  and  were  compelled  to 
do  our  own  cooking,  his  culinary  knowledge  was  very  valuable. 


454 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


Neither  the  doctor  nor  I  could  build  a  biscuit  with  any  degree 
of  success.  Either  of  us  could  prepare  or  mix  the  dough,  put 
it  in  the  skillet,  put  on  the  cover  and  set  the  skillet  on  the  fire ; 
then  we  would  sit  down  and  wait,  or  occupy  ourselves  in  frying 
bacon.  But  there  was  never  any  certainty  as  to  what  the  skillet 
would  produce.  Sometimes  it  would  be  a  pudding,  and  at  other 
times  it  would  be  a  flour-and-water  brick,  hard  enough  to  ruin 
the  digestive  organs  of  a  camel.  The  reporter  made  splendid 
biscuits,  and  then  he  taught  us  how  to  settle  coffee.  In  fact,  he 
settled  every  thing,  much 
to  our  satisfaction,  by  tak- 
ing the  whole  cooking-busi- 
ness into  his  own  hands. 
We  rode  one  hundred 


^5? 


'¥  ^  v  ~-<  «t 

i0l&W_  "x  .  "V-.-vitfc, 


COOKING    A    BISCUIT. 


miles  in  the  first  three  days  from  San  Antonio,  travelling  only 
in  the  early  mornings  and  in  the  evenings,  and  resting  during 
the  remainder  of  the  day. 

We  were  riding  along  through  the  woods  and  by  the  bank  of 
a  creek.  The  path  was  so  narrow  that  we  had  to  ride  Indian 
file.  This  suggested  talk  about  Indians  :  indeed,  it  was  a  favor- 
ite topic  with  us.  Whenever  we  talked  about  them,  and  the 
atrocities  they  were  credited  with  perpetrating,  the  doctor  as- 
sumed a  belligerent  cast  of  countenance,  and  spoke  in  a  warlike 
and  bloodthirsty  manner  of  the  summary  style  in  which  he  would 


TALKING  OLLENDORF'S  SPANISH  EXERCISES.     455 

treat  an  Indian,  should  he  be  fortunate  enough  to  meet  one. 
We  had  lately  heard  so  much  of  the  murderous  doings  of  the 
red-handed  thieves,  that  the  blood  in  our  veins  boiled  as  we 
thought  of  the  tales  that  had  been  told  us ;  and  we  determined 
that  a  terrible  vengeance  should  overtake  the  first  Indian  we 
might  meet.  We  even  made  arrangements  as  to  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  spoils.  His  bow  and  arrows  were  to  go  to  a  friend 
of  mine  and  his  wampum  —  if  wampum  was  what  we  thought 
it  was  —  was  to  be  forwarded  to  the  doctor's  uncle,  who  was  a 
monomaniac  in  the  matter  of  battlefield  relics.  The  moccasons 
and  pipe  were  to  be  presented  to  the  museum  in  San  Antonio. 
Time  and  again  we  had  'talked  the  matter  over,  and  as  often 
enjoyed,  in  anticipation,  the  retribution  that  would  be  visited 
on  the  foe  when  we  should  meet  him. 

We  were  discussing  the  subject  for  the  hundredth  time  as  we 
rode  along,  —  the  doctor  in  front,  on  his  old  claybank ;  I  behind, 
encouraging  my  horse  to  keep  up  with  the  doctor's, —  when  sud- 
denly, from  behind  a  rock  that  stood  at  a  turn  in  the  narrow 
path,  appeared  an  Indian.  The  doctor  made  wild  and  frantic 
efforts  to  get  his  Winchester  out  of  its  fastenings  on  the  saddle. 
The  Indian  seemed  to  be  terribly  frightened,  but  I  do  not  think 
he  was  nearly  so  much  alarmed  as  the  doctor  was.  I  was  not 
frightened ;  but  I  wished  for  a  cave,  or  a  mouse-hole,  large 
enough  to  crawl  into,  and  reconnoitre  the  enemy  before  killing 
him.  My  friends  have  always  given  me  credit  for  being  calm 
and  discreet  in  times  of  danger.  I  felt  full  of  discretion  at  the 
time,  and  I  had  always  heard  that  a  good  general  reconnoitred 
before  attacking  the  enemy.  I  was  perfectly  cool :  I  almost  felt 
chilly.  As  there  was  no  cave,  I  was  about  to  conceal  myself 
behind  a  tree,  when  the  Indian  said,  "Buenos  dias,  senor." 

I  did  not  understand  what  the  Indian  said  at  the  time ;  but  I 
was  surprised  to  see  the  doctor  drop  his  rifle,  assume  a  peaceful 
attitude,  and  reply  to  the  Indian  in,  apparently,  the  Indian's 
own  language,  and  still  more  surprised  to  see  the  doctor  ride 
up  to  the  red  fiend,  shake  hands  with  him,  press  him  to  drink 
out  of  his  flask,  and  in  a  very  voluble  manner  begin  to  talk 
Ollendorf's  Spanish  exercises  to  him. 

The  Indian  was  only  a  Mexican.     His  politeness  in  saying 


456 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


"  good-morning "  at  the  moment  he  did,  was  what  saved  him. 
Another  moment,  and  he  would  have  been  a  dead  Indian,  welter- 
ing in  his  life-blood ;  for,  though  I  hated  to  take  life,  I  was  cool 
and  determined.  I  did  not  know  much  Spanish  then ;  but  the 
doctor,  who  had  been  studying  the  language  since  we  left 
Houston,  by  the  aid  of  a  grammar,  held,  apparently,  a  very 
interesting  conversation  with  the  Mexican,  using  twenty-eight 
pages  of  "Ollendorfs  Method  for  Beginners"  on  the  poor 
greaser.  The  doctor  said  he  enjoyed  the  conversation  very 


AT    A    TURN     IN    THE    PATH    APPEARED    AN    INDIAN. 

much,  was  benefited  by  the  interchange  of  ideas,  and  learned 
a  good  deal  of  the  habits  and  customs  of  a  very  interesting 
people.  I  have  no  doubt  of  it  ;  for  I  found  out  afterwards,  by 
reference  to  the  doctor's  grammar,  that  his  end  of  the  conversa- 
tion scintillated  with  wit,  and  was  something  after  the  following 
brilliant  style  :  — 

"  Have  you  my  book,  or  the  book  of  my  neighbor  ?  " 
"  Has  the  merchant  received  the  gold  candlestick  ?  " 
"  Have  you  the  dog  of  the  tailor  ?  " 


"  WASN'T  RAISED    CIVILIZED."  457 

"  Has  the  boy  the  cow  of  the  carpenter,  or  the  horse  of  the 
cook  ? " 

I  was  very  much  disappointed  in  the  way  the  adventure  re- 
sulted. I  had  hoped  to  be  able  to  write  home  that  I  had  at 
least  winged  the  sachem  of  a  tribe ;  and  here,  when  the  oppor- 
tunity was  betore  me,  and  the  Indian  within  range,  he  suddenly 
changed  himself  into  an  unromantic  greaser,  abounding  in  evi- 
dences of  having  had  the  small-pox.  It  seems  to  me,  that,  when- 
ever a  man  braces  himself  up  to  do  a  good  and  meritorious  deed, 
something  interposes  to  prevent  its  accomplishment.  "This 
world  is  but  a  fleeting  show  for  man's  illusion  given,"  and  the 
Indian  is  the  most  unsatisfactory  part  of  the  show. 

We  rode  up  to  a  store  on  the  stage-road.  It  was  a  very  small 
store.  A  whiskey-barrel,  some  canned  oysters,  a  box  of  plug- 
tobacco,  and  a  coil  of  rope,  seemed  to  comprise  almost  every 
thing  offered  for  sale.  There  were  three  men  in  the  store,  be- 
sides the  proprietor,  when  we  entered.  They  were  discussing 
improvements,  and  seemed  to  be  very  much  against  immigration 
and  railroads.  The  doctor  joined  in  the  conversation.  "I  can't 
understand  how  it  is,"  said  he,  "  that  men  who  have  acquired 
wealth  in  flocks  and  herds  will  persist  in  living  as  some  of 
them  do.  Why  do  they  not  sell  out,  and  go  where  they  enjoy 
the  benefits,  comforts,  and  pleasures  of  civilization  ?  Why,  I 
saw  a  place  yesterday  where  I  could  not  tell  which  was  the 
stable,  and  which  the  family  residence ;  where  the  pigs  lived  in 
the  house,  and  played  with  the  children,  so  that  I  couldn't  tell 
where  the  hog  left  off,  and  the  family  began.  Why  don't  they 
aspire  to  a  more  comfortable  existence  ? " 

"  Because,  colonel,"  said  an  old  man  who  sat  on  the  end  of 
an  empty  whiskey-barrel,  and  whose  open  hickory  shirt  showed 
a  chest  bronzed  by  the  ray  of  many  a  summer's  sun,  and  whose 
sockless  feet,  incased  in  broken-down  brogans,  proclaimed  him 
the  old  frontiersman  that  he  was,  —  "  because,  colonel,  mebbe 
they  wa'n't  raised  civilized  ;  because,  p'rhaps,  they  was  brought 
up  on  the  prairie  or  in  the  wood,  and  ain't  used  to  the  ways  of 
the  old  countries,  and  could  not  be  easily  broke  in  to  appreciate 
the  benefits,  or  to  enjoy  what  you  call  the  pleasures,  of  civiliza- 
tion. That's  whar  some  folks  make  the  mistake.  They,  maybe, 


458 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


think  milk  and  sugar  improves  the  flavor  of  coffee,  and  they 
wonder  why  on  earth  some  folks  prefers  their'n  straight.  I  re- 
member, 'fore  the  war,  I  had  been  down  to  Galveston,  and  was 
comin'  up  to  Houston  on  one  of  the  bayou  steamers.  In  them 
days  we  had  no  railroads.  I  lived  in  about  whar  the  town  of 
Round  Rock  is  now.  We  had  to  haul 
our  supplies  then  two  hundred  miles  on 
ox-wagons.  The  bayou  steamers  used 
to  stop  at  little  way-landin's,  and  only 
when  signalled.  This  mornin'  we  was 
behind  time.  We  had  on  full  steam,  and 
was  boomin'  along  around  Hog  Island, 
when  we  kem  in  sight  of  a  nigger  on  a 
landin',  makin'  desperate  signs  for  us  to 
stop.  The  cap'n  cussed  most  powerful 

to  think  that 


we  would 
have  to  lose 
half  an  hour 
backin'  up  to 
the  landin'. 
But  he  had 
to  do  it,  for 
it  was  his  or- 
ders to  stop 
for  freight 
whenever 
signalled ; 
and  the  nig- 
ger had  done 

give  us  the  signal,  and  stood  waitin'  for  us  on  the  bank  with  an 
innercent  look  of  happiness  on  his  face,  and  a  dead  coon  on  his 
shoulder.  The  boat  backed  in  ;  an',  when  near  the  landin',  the 
cap'n  shouted  to  the  nigger,  — 

"  '  Hello  !  what  in  the have  you  got  ? ' 

"  '  Hello,  yourself,  boss  !     I  jest  thought  maybe  you  mought 
wanter  buy  a  coon.' 

"  The  cap'n's  face  turned  blue  with  rage  ;  and,  with  a  howl  of 


•THOUGHT    MAYBE    YOU     MOUGHT    WANTER    BUY    A    COON." 


"  OWIN'    TO  HOW  YOU  WAS  RAISED."          459 

steamboat  profanity,  he  says, « You  infernal  black  scoundrel,  did 
you  stop  me  to  sell  a  coon  ?  —  All  aboard  !  Go  ahead  !  Why, 
I'd  rather  eat  dog,  any  day.' 

"  '  Well,  cap'n,'  replied  the  nigger,  '  some  folks  likes  one  ting ; 
some,  anoder  :  it's  all  owin'  to  how  you  was  raised.' 

"  So,  I  s#y,  it's  all  owin'  to  how  a  man  is  raised,  whether  he 
likes  to  live  in  the  wilderness,  or  in  the  civilized  parts  of  the 
yearth." 

Turning,  and  addressing  his  friends,  the  old  man  continued, 
"  Wouldn't  I  be  a  sweet-looking  specimen  of  civilization,  if  I  was 
planted  in  Galveston,  and  rigged  out  in  store-clothes  and  an 
umbrella  —  now,  wouldn't  I  ?  " 

The  absurdity  of  the  frontiersman  being  transformed  into  a 
specimen  of  civilization  by  the  simple  means  referred  to,  affect- 
ed the  crowd  so  much,  that  the  storekeeper  was  compelled  to 
furnish  restoratives. 

"  No,  sir !  "  continued  the  early  settler.  "  I  come  here  'fore 
the  woods  was  burned.  I  like  the  freedom  of  the  frontier,  an'  I 
know  I  would  not  feel  more  at  home  in  the  streets  of  a  city 
than  a  temperance-man  would  at  an  Irish  wake.  I  was  born 
within  sight  of  Stone  Mountain  in  Georgia,  when  the  Indians 
were  thar  same  as  they  are  on  the  frontier  now.  See  that 
scar?" 

The  early  settler  took  off  his  hat,  and  showed  us  a  heavy  scar 
running  from  the  top  of  his  head  almost  to  his  left  eyebrow. 
"  That  thar  is  what  I  got  from  an  Indian  tomahawk  when  I  was 
'bout  three  years  old.  My  oldest  brother  was  killed,  and  my 
father  was  runnin'  to  hide  in  a  cornfield,  with  me  in  his  arms, 
when  I  got  that.  The  old  man  had  an  axe  in  his  hand,  and  he 
split  the  redskin's  head  clear  to  the  teeth.  Not  much  civiliza- 
tion 'bout  them  diggins  ;  no,  sir !  " 

"Not  much  style  about  those  early  Georgian  pioneers,  I 
reckon,"  said  the  reporter. 

"  Style  !  Why,  I  was  twelve  years  old  when  I  got  my  first 
pair  of  boots.  Don't  I  remember  them  yaller-tops  !  Folks  in 
them  parts  mostly  tanned  their  own  leather,  but  them  was 
genuine  store-boots.  They  got  me  into  two  fights.  I  had  to 
fit  with  two  other  boys  the  first  day  I  put  'em  on,  and  I  was 


460  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

the  under  dog  in  both  fights.  The  boys  didn't  approve  of  style 
in  them  days.  I  was  man  growed  'fore  ever  I  saw  an  earthen- 
ware plate.  We  had  nothin'  but  pewter  plates  to  eat  off,  and 
wooden  noggins  to  drink  out  of  ;  but,  Lor'  bless  your  soul !  we 
never  wanted  for  somethin'  to  put  in  them.  We  had  lots  of 
b'ar-meat,  and  cords  of  all  sorts  of  game.  No,  we  didn't  know 
nothin'  of  flour-bread  :  corn-bread  was  the  staple.  Whiskey ! 
I  should  say  so  !  Most  everybody  made  their  own  ;  but,  if  you 
wa'n't  fixed  to  make  it  yourself,  you  had  only  to  carry  a  bushel 
of  corn  to  a  neighbor's  still,  and  come  back  with  a  demijohn  of 
pure  juice.  When  we  had  a  corn-shuckin',  a  log-rollin',  a  house- 
raisin',  or  any  such  frolic,  the  whiskey  just  sloshed  round  like 
water.  We  only  got  coffee  on  Sundays ;  but  we  had  whiskey 
all  the  time,  and  it  was  whiskey  as  was  whiskey,  not  the  adul- 
terated pizen  they  call  by  that  name  now.  You  could  hev  got 
fullernagoose  on  it,  and  it  wouldn't  hev  hurt  you." 

As  the  early  settler  said  this,  he  sighed,  wiped  his  mouth  on 
his  shirt-sleeve,  and  shook  his  head  in  a  regretful  sort  of  way, 
indicating  his  belief  that  those  good  old  days  when  whiskey 
actually  "sloshed  around"  were  gone  forever.  I  invited  the 
old  man  to  lubricate  his  throat  with  some  of  the  juice  of  these 

degenerate  days.  He  accepted  the  in- 
vitation, and  apologized  for  the  size  of 
the  drink  he  took  by  saying  that  the 
soil  was  dry,  and  he  did  not  know  when 
another  such  chance  would  offer. 

"Yes,    major,"    said  he,    "nowadays 
boys  git  store-clothes  as  soon  as  they 

aw.  '      "r     «  '-w>  can  wa-lk-     They're  rigged  out  in  boots, 

and  even  socks,  'fore  they're  old  enough 
THE  EARLY  SETTLER.  to  roPe  a  mustang.     It  wa'n't  so  in  my 

day,  and  we  had  bigger  men  an'  stronger 

women.  We  didn't  need  no  anti-bilious  pills  nor  liver-reg'lator, 
either :  we  reg'lated  our  inwards  with  pure  air,  healthy  vittles, 
an'  hard  work.  Seems  to  me,  the  more  folks  gits  civilized,  the 
more  they  need  the  doctors  :  ain't  it  so  ?  As  for  me,  I  ain't 
agoin'  to  run  the  risk  of  lettin'  no  doctor  get  the  drop  on  me : 
so  I'll  stay  out  here  an'  die,  as  I  have  lived,  on  the  prairie  or  in 


AN  EARLY  SETTLER.  461 

the  woods,  and  let  them  as  likes  feather-beds  and  mixed  drinks 
enjoy  the  benefits  of  civilization,  an'  pleasure  of  payin'  taxes. 
That's  the  branch  I  live  on.  You  hear  me !  " 

"  Nevertheless,"  said  the  red-nosed  man,  who  sat  on  a  keg  at 
the  door,  —  "nevertheless  "  —  and  then  he  stopped  short,  and, 
lifting  himself  off  the  keg  on  to  the  floor,  strolled  lazily  over  to 
the  counter,  and  took  a  dose  of  whiskey  of  a  double  snake-bite 
calibre.  We  all  waited  to  hear  what  he  had  to  say.  We  were 
interested,  because  he  looked  as  if  he  was  full  of  information,, 
whiskey,  and  moral  reflections.  He  was  about  to  continue, 
when  a  cheese  on  the  end  of  the  counter  met  his  eye.  He 
took  out  his  knife,  and  cut  off  about  a  pound  of  the  indigestible 
fruit ;  and  then,  in  the  same  lazy  manner  in  which  he  got  down,, 
he  jack-screwed  himself  up  on  the  keg  again. 

The  old  settler  could  wait  no  longer.  He  gave  the  keg  on 
which  the  red-nosed  man  sat  a  kick,  to  catch  his  attention,  and 
said,  "  Nevertheless  what  ?  " 

"  Nevertheless,  although  you'ns  seem  to  be  down  on  civiliza- 
tion, thar  hev  been  times  with  all  o'  you  when  you  would  hev 
swopped  all  you  had  in  the  world  fur  a  chance  to  rest  your- 
selves on  a  city  doorstep." 

"  I  never  knowed  any  sich  time,"  said  the  old  settler. 

"You  didn't?" 

"  No,  sir  :  I  say  I  didn't." 

"You  didn't  never  git  chased  by  the  Lipans  in  '61,  did  you  ?' 
Maybe  it  wasn't  you,  an'  maybe  you  didn't  wish  for  a  seat  in 
the  Galveston  Cotton  Exchange,  as  you  skooted  across  the 
prairie  for  Fort  Clark,  with  forty  redskins  at  your  heels.  Oh,, 
no !  I  reckin  I'm  mistaken  in  the  man." 

"Well,  I  don't  count  that  time.  You  see,  thar  were  too' 
many  coons  for  the  pup ;  an'  I  reckon  I  did  push  along  pritty 
lively,  for  the  matter  of  eight  or  ten  miles,  on  that  occasion." 

"You  were  excusable,"  said  the  red-nosed  man;  "fur  the 
odds  were  agin  ye.  But  when  it  comes  to  half  a  dozen  Injuns,, 
gentlemen,  they  ain't  no  match  fur  one  white  man  if  he  is  well 
armed.  Did  I  ever  tell  you  of  how  I  run  five  Injuns  several 
miles,  when  I  had  no  other  weepin  than  an  old  single-bar'L 
shotgun  loaded  with  bird-shot  ? " 


462  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  I  don't  b'lieve  you  ever  told  it,"  said  the  old  settler. 

"  It  was  in  '72,  when  I  was  haulin'  government-stores  from 
San  Antonio  to  Fort  Concho.  We  had  a  long  train  of  waggins. 
Thar  was  some  twenty  of  us  in  the  party.  We  were  in  camp 
one  evenin',  on  the  south  fork  of  the  Llano  River.  I  rid  off 
by  myself  up  the  river,  thinkin'  I  might  get  a  shot  at  a  duck 
or  a  turkey.  I  took  no  weepin  with  me,  'cept  the  shotgun, 
'cause  I  never  thought  of  no  Injuns  till  I  saw  'em.  I  was 
up'ards  of  two  miles  from  camp  when  I  first  sot  my  eyes  on 
'em,  an'  they  wern't  a  hundred  yards  off.  They  saw  me  as 
soon  as  I  saw  them,  maybe  sooner.  Thar  were  five  of  'em. 
Fur  about  a  second  I  thought  it  was  all  up  with  me.  I  thought 
of  the  wife  an'  the  kids  at  home ;  an'  then  I  determined  to  give 
them  the  best  I  had,  an',  if  I  had  to  die,  to  sell  my  life  as 
dearly  as  possible.  So  I  just  tightened  the  reins,  bent  down 
on  my  horse's  neck,  cocked  my  gun,  and  started.  The  Injuns 
had  been  watchin'  me  very  closely.  They  probably  guessed 
my  determination,  fur  they  hardly  waited  fur  this  movement  of 
mine  before  every  one  of  'em  begun  to  run.  Geeroos'lm  !  You 
should  hev  seen  'em  scatter  dirt ;  an'  I  hadn't  a  thing  but  the 
old  muzzle-loader.  I  had  a  pritty  good  horse,  an'  it  was  a  tight 
race  fur  a  bit.  I  ran  'em  fur  two  miles ;  but  my  horse  was  a 
little  the  fastest,  an'  I  was  about  three  hundred  yards  ahead 
when  I  got  into  camp  safe  among  my  friends." 

While  the  old  man  was  speaking,  his  cigar  went  out.  When 
he  finished  his  remarks,  he  reached  down  to  strike  a  match  on 
the  keg  he  was  sitting  on.  At  the  moment  he  scratched  the 
match,  his  eye  caught  the  stencilled  marks  on  the  head  of  the 
keg :  XXX  POWDER.  The  speed  of  his  exit  was  very  credita- 
ble for  an  old  man. 

This  reminded  me  of  a  surprise  that  befell  me  when  I  was  a 
boy ;  a  boy  at  that  period  of  life  when  the  brightness  of  his  ex- 
istence consists  in  surprises,  —  surprising  dogs  with  oyster-can 
epilogues,  and  the  belated  public  with  kite-string  fences  across 
the  sidewalk.  My  father  objected  to  his  son  exhibiting  any 
Fourth-of-July  exuberance  through  the  medium  of  fire-crackers. 
This  I  considered  pure  despotism  and  an  absence  of  intelligent 
patriotism  on  his  part.  I  never  could  account  for  the  interdic- 


A  SURPRISE. 


463 


tion,  unless  that  it  was  in  some  way  connected  with  the  fact 
that  my  father  was  president  of  the  local  fire-insurance  compa- 
ny, or  that,  as  he  said,  the  money  wasted  in  fire-crackers  annu- 
ally in  the  United  States,  if  expended  in  the  purchase  of  loaves 
of  bread,  would  (as  had  been  calculated)  furnish  food  for 
1,795,375  of  the  destitute  poor,  or  send  the  glad  tidings  of  the 
gospel  to  231,421  benighted  heathens.  Probably  he  used  the 
money  that  should  have  been  invested  in  the  fire-crackers  that 
I  didn't  get,  in 
the  purchase 
of  loaves  for 
the  destitute 
poor,  or  in 
providing 
missionaries 
for  the  hea- 
then ;  but,  in 
the  absence 
of  document- 
ary evidence, 
I  cannot  posi- 
tively affirm. 
Anyhow,  I 
know  that  he 
prohibited 
fire -crackers, 
and  that  cer- 
tain  viola- 
tions of  the  prohibition  on  my  part  were  visited  with  stern  re- 
bukes at  the  hands  of  the  old  gentleman. 

On  one  eventful  night,  by  the  sale  of  a  damaged  barlow, 
three  alleys,  and  a  tailless  kite,  I  became  the  possessor  of 
twenty-five  cents.  The  business-man  who  reads  this  —  espe- 
cially, if  he  has  ever  been  a  boy— will  at  once  see  that  I 
made  an  immense  sacrifice  for  cash  ;  but  the  circumstances  de- 
manded that  I  should  sell  at  even  less  than  cost,  to  make  room 
for  a  cracker  of  tremendous  proportions  that  I  had  determined 
to  become  possessor  of. 


CREDITABLE    SPEED    FOR    AN    OLD    MAN. 


464  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

I  was  desirous  of  surprising  the  residents  of  a  certain  house 
on  North  Hill.  The  dark  mantle  of  night  had  wrapped  its 
sombre  folds,  and  so  forth,  when  I  sneaked  into  the  store,  and 
purchased  the  big  cracker,  —  cannon-crackers  they  were  called. 
I  had  never  seen  one  so  large.  It  was  some  twelve  inches 
long,  and  as  thick  around  as  my  arm  was  then.  Hurriedly 
concealing  it  under  my  jacket,  for  fear  of  the  paternal  eye,  I 
hied  me  to  the  spot :  I  would  remark,  by  way  of  parenthesis, 
that  I  have  never  heard  a  single  human,  or  inhuman,  being 
use  the  expression  "  hied  me  to  the  spot ; "  but  I  notice  in 
books,  that  the  dark  conspirator  invariably  proceeds  to  an  ap- 
pointed rendezvous  by  hieing.  Therefore  that  was  the  way  in 
which  I  proceeded  to  the  corner  of  Elm  and  Spruce  Streets. 
The  family  that  lived  at  the  confluence  (as  the  doctor  would 
express  it)  of  these  two  streets  consisted  of  the  following : 
an  old  gentleman  who  had  the  gout  and  a  large  gold-headed 
cane,  and  who  treated  boys  with  that  lordly  contempt  that  old 
gentlemen  with  gout  and  gold-headed  canes  usually  assume 
toward  boys.  I  hated  him.  His  wife,  who  carried  a  corpulent 
umbrella,  and  wore  a  pair  of  steel-rimmed  spectacles —  But 
why  multiply  details  ?  I  loathed  the  whole  family. 

They  had  been  to  prayer-meeting.  I  knew  it.  I  awaited 
their  return.  I  stood  at  the  gate,  and  saw  them  slowly  ap- 
proach. I  calculated  that  the  fuze  on  the  end  of  the  cannon- 
cracker  would  last  as  long  as  it  would  take  them  to  walk  from 
a  certain  point  to  the  gate.  As  they  approachd  this  point,  I 
hurriedly  placed  the  cracker  against  the  gate,  applied  a  match 
to  the  fuze,  and  concealed  myself  behind  a  tree-box  to  await 
the  denoiiment.  Seconds  seemed  minutes.  I  peeped  around 
the  box.  They  were  within  a  dozen  steps  of  the  gate.  I 
glanced  at  the  infernal  machine.  The  fuze  had  burned  down  to 
within  a  fourth  of  an  inch  of  the  end.  By  its  light  I  read,  in 
large  letters  on  the  end  of  the  miserable  bomb,  this  warning : 
"Standoff  twenty  yards."  I  moved  away.  The  precipitancy 
with  which  I  retired  from  the  vicinity  of  that  cracker  would 
have  been  creditable  to  a  cannon-ball.  I  flashed  around  the 
corner,  and  collided  with  a  policeman,  making  a  centre  with 
my  head  in  the  pit  of  his  stomach.  I  was  surprised  :  so  was 


SHEEP-RAISING.  465 

the  policeman.  I  was  in  a  hurry  to  get  away  from  there,  and 
did  not  stop  to  apologize.  As  I  swept  around  the  next  corner, 
I  heard  the  policeman,  who  had  recovered  his  breath,  consign 
me  to  regions  infernal  and  spirits  diabolical,  and  then  I  heard 
an  awful  explosion.  The  windows  seemed  to  rattle,  the  houses 
to  shake,  and  the  solid  earth  to  tremble.  As  I  ran,  I  had 
visions  of  fragments  of  human  beings,  of  gold-headed  canes,  of 
umbrellas,  and  of  steel-rimmed  spectacles,  being  scattered  over 
the  north  end  of  town.  I  saw  a  coroner's  jury,  a  prison-cell, 
a  judge,  a  black  cap,  a  scaffold  and  a  rope,  and  I  saw  myself  at 
the  end  of  the  rope.  By  the  time  I  got  home, .  I  had  deter- 
mined to  run  away  that  night,  and  expiate  my  crime  by  being 
a  missionary  in  some  foreign  land.  After  supper  I  concluded 
to  wait  until  morning.  In  the  gray  dawn  I  dressed.  Conceal- 
ing a  bottle  of  my  favorite  wart-medicine,  and  a  butcher's  knife, 
in  the  lining  of  my  jacket  (my  pocket  would  have  held  them 
easily),  I  proceeded  to  run  away. 

Wishing  to  view  the  ruin  I  had  made,  I  sneaked  around  to 
the  scene  of  my  crime.  The  gate  was  shattered,  and  twisted 
off  its  hinges.  While  I  looked  on  this  evidence  of  my  villany, 
the  milkman  drove  up,  and  delivered  to  the  servant  the  usual 
quart  of  the  bovine  fluid.  A  load  was  lifted  off  my  heart.  I 
felt  my  blood-stained  hands  become  clean.  If  the  family  had 
been  blown  up  the  night  before,  they  would  have  had  no  use 
for  milk  in  the  morning.  They  took  the  usual  quantity :  ergo 
they  were  all  alive.  I  went  home ;  and  the  benighted  heathen 
will  never  know  that  the  delivery  of  a  quart  of  skim-milk  at 
a  critical  moment  lost  to  them  a  zealous  missionary.  By  what 
trifling  incidents  is  our  whole  course  in  life  sometimes  changed  ! 

Sheep-raising  is  the  principal  industry  in  Western  Texas  ; 
and  there  is  probably  no  country  in  the  world  that  offers  so 
many  inducements  to  the  sheep-raiser.  He  has  an  unlimited 
supply  of  grass  and  water,  and  a  mild  climate.  He  has  never 
to  buy  any  feed  for  his  sheep.  It  is  not  necessary  that  he 
should  build  sheds  to  protect  the  sheep  in  the  winter,  as  has 
to  be  done  in  northern  climates ;  for  there  is  no  cold  weather 
in  Western  Texas,  to  speak  of.  He  can  buy  land  suitable  for 
sheep  to  graze  on,  for  less  than  a  dollar  an  acre ;  and,  if  he  does 

3° 


466 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


not  wish  to  buy,  he  can  have  the  use  of  the  land,  and  the  grass  on 
it,  for  nothing.  In  many  instances  sheep-owners  get  permission 
to  use  the  land,  on  condition  that  they  pay  the  State  tax  on  it. 

It  is  estimated,  that,  in  1879,  there  were  fifteen  million  sheep 
in  Texas.  In  Nueces  County  alone,  according  to  the  assess- 
or's returns,  there  are  seven  hundred  thousand  sheep.  There 
is  no  business  more  lucrative  than  sheep-raising  ;  but,  to  be 
successful  at  it,  the  sheep-man  is  compelled  to  go  out  into  the 
solitude  of  the  Western  prairies,  and  for  years  cut  himself 
off  from  all  society.  It  is  profitable,  but  it  is  monotonous  :  it 
pays,  but  it  is  a  lonely  life. 

The  outfit  of  a  Texas  shepherd  consists  of  two  ponies,  a  tent, 
cooking-vessels,  and  several  sheep-dogs.  Two  men  and  three 
or  four  dogs  can  take  care  of  from  two  thousand  to  four  thou- 
sand sheep.  I  could  tell  how  the  Mexican  sheep  costs  about 
one  dollar  and  a  half  each,  and  produces  but  little  wool ;  how 
the  cross  between  the  Mexican  and  the  Merino  sheep  produces 
the  most  profitable  sheep,  and  the  one  best  adapted  to  the 
Texas  soil  and  climate ;  how  the  sheep  are  sheared,  and  what 
the  ratio  of  increase  is  from  year  to  year :  but  these  things 
would  not  interest  the  general  reader.  The  general  reader 
does  not  care  for  statistics. 

I,  however,  give  below  some  calculations  that  I  found  in  a 
Texas  newspaper,  showing  the  profit  that  accrues  to  those  who 
engage  in  sheep-raising. 

"  As  three  thousand  ewes  are  considered  a  herd,  and  herded  together,  we 
take  that  number,  with  twenty  improved  rams,  as  a  starting-point  to  illus- 
trate the  increase. 


INCREASE. 

YEAR. 

Ewes 
Principal. 

Value  Sales 
Wool  Sheep. 

Expenses. 

Net  Profit 
Herd. 

Ewes. 

Weathers. 

I 

3,OOO 

2,000 

1,000 

£3,125 

$625 

$2,500 

2 

5,OOO 

3-333 

1,66; 

5,607 

1,440 

4,165 

3 

8,833 

5,839 

2,944 

9,IOO 

1,740 

7,360 

4 

14,722 

9,815 

4,907 

14,675 

2,970 

11,765 

5 

24,537 

16,358 

8,179 

25,310 

4,865 

20,445 

56,092 

37,305 

18,607 

$57,815 

$11,580 

$46,235 

SHEEP  STATISTICS.  467 

"  It  will  be  seen  that  in  five  years'  time,  besides  making  a  net  profit  of 
$46,235,  your  sheep  have  increased  from  3,000  to  56,000.  In  two  years 
more  from  this  period,  the  capital  (or  stationary  stock)  will  have  increased 
to  over  100,000  ewes,  which,  without  further  increase  of  capital,  ought  to 
produce  a  yearly  net  profit  of  at  least  $200,000." 

The  figures  look  at  first  sight  as  if  they  were  all  right ;  but 
the  mathematician  who  constructed  these  delusive  calculations 
neglected  to  deduct  the  yearly  loss  by  death,  say,  ten  to 
twenty  per  cent.  Therefore  his  figures  show  an  increase  by 
birth,  in  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  years,  from  the  sheep  that 
died  in  the  first  and  second  years.  Sheep  are  very  prolific,  but 
this  is  expecting  really  too  much  of  them.  I  have  made  cal- 
culations in  which  every  reasonable  and  unreasonable  allow- 
ance was  made  for  loss  and  death  ;  and  still  the  increase  in  ten 
years  was  enough  to  bankrupt  the  numerical  system,  and  stag- 
ger my  belief  in  the  truthfulness  of  figures.  Sheep-men  to 
whom  I  have  shown  my  calculations  pronounce  them  to  be 
without  flaw  or  error.  I  have  found,  however,  that  although 
you  can,  with  a  pencil,  easily  start  with  a  herd  of  sheep  or 
cattle  on  a  sheet  of  paper,  carry  them  through  five  years  of 
arithmetical  vicissitudes  and  prosperity,  and,  making  allowance 
for  loss  and  death,  bring  them  to  the  end  of  the  term  and  the 
full  extent  of  the  paper,  enormously  increased  in  number  and 
value,  yet,  when  you  come  to  look  among  sheep-men  for  the 
practical  demonstration  of  these  figures,  you  find  difficulty  in 
discovering  them.. 

The  immigrant,  when  he  arrives,  is  met  on  every  hand  with 
calculations  showing  immense  credit-balances  to  them ;  and 
all  kinds  of  domestic  animals  and  birds  are  brought  into  these 
calculations.  I  know  of  one  ranch  in  Texas  where  camels  are 
raised,  also  one  peacock-ranch,  and  many  goat-ranches.  I 
figured  up  the  profits  on  the  goat -business  for  a  young  man, 
just  from  New  York  for  his  health,  whom  I  met  in  San  Antonio. 
I  did  it  merely  to  show  him  how  profit  could  be  made  in  cal- 
culating goats  on  paper ;  and,  when  he  saw  the  result,  I  had 
great  difficulty  in  dissuading  him  from  telegraphing  home  for 
capital  to  invest  in  a  goat-ranch. 

Thus  far,  the  raising  of  geese  has  not  received  much  atten- 


468  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

tion  in  Texas ;  and  yet  there  is  more  money  in  it  than  in  failing 
twice  at  ten  cents  on  the  dollar.  That  the  Texas  grangers 
have  never  paid  any  attention  to  this  most  important  matter 
shows  that  they  are  not  true  grangers.  They  have  not  got  the 
interests  of  the  goose  at  heart.  They  do  not  appreciate  the 
lofty  mission  of  the  goose.  Geese  have  a  proud  record.  Sev- 
eral thousand  years  ago  they  saved  Rome  by  cackling,  which 
has  become  the  recognized  mode  among  statesmen  ever  since, 
when  the  country  needs  saving.  There  are  several  distinct 
kinds  of  geese.  There  is  the  goose  that  hangs  high,  and  the 
goose  that  is  cooked  ;  but  the  particular  goose  referred  to  now 
is  the  goose  that  lays  the  golden  egg,  whose  death  has  been 
erroneously  reported  in  "Old  Mother  Goose." 

I  met  a  Texas  goose-man,  and  interviewed  him  on  the  sub- 
ject of  goose-raising  in  Texas.  The  term  "  goose-man "  is 
correct.  A  cattle-man  is  a  man  who  raises  cattle :  conse- 
quently a  goose  man  is  one  who  raises  geese.  The  man 
engaged  in  the  lucrative  but  perilous  occupation  of  raising 
geese  is  a  young  man.  His  ranch  is  on  Goose  Creek,  one 
of  the  large  streams  that  empties  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
He  readily  consented  to  furnish  all  the  information  he  was 
possessed  of  on  the  goose-question.  The  following  interesting 
data  were  obtained  in  regard  to  the  antecedents  and  manners 
of  geese.  The  goose  can  swallow  any  thing.  Like  the  ostrich, 
it  will  put  up  with  shingle-nails  and  sawdust  for  a  Sunday  din- 
ner, and  cry  for  more.  The  goose  is  never  troubled  with  indi- 
gestion, and,  although  inseparably  connected  with  quacks,  is 
never  in  bad  health.  Nobody  ever  saw  a  dead  goose  :  at  least, 
none  that  died  a  natural  death.  Occasionally  a  Sunday  sports- 
man comes  along,  and,  mistaking  a  tame  goose  for  a  wild  one, 
shoots  it  on  the  spot ;  but  that  comes  under  the  head  of  "acci- 
dental." Unless  thus  assisted  from  the  outside,  so  to  speak, 
the  goose  lives  on  for  seventy-five  or  a  hundred  years.  One 
advantage  that  the  goose  has  over  other  stock  is,  that  it  can- 
not be  driven  off  into  Mexico ;  and  there  is  no  incentive  to  kill 
it  for  its  hide,  —  a  profession  that  is  more  generally  practised 
in  Western  Texas  than  in  any  other  section. 

The  goose  has  many  advantages  over  the  other  beasts  of  the 


A    GOOSE-RANCH. 


469 


field.  The  cow  has  usually  but  one  calf,  but  the  goose  rejoices 
in  five  or  six  simultaneous  pairs  of  twins.  Allowing  for  teeth- 
ing, diphtheria,  mumps,  and  other  annoyances,  the  goose  can 
count  on  raising  a  litter  of  at  least  seven.  Geese  hatch  at  two 
years  old,  but  ganders  are  more  uncertain.  Three  crops  of 
feathers  a  year  can  be  raised,  without  phosphates,  on  the  sur- 
face of  a  goose,  particularly  if  the  goose  is  situated  near  a  lake 
or  creek,  where  it  can  be  irrigated.  The  feathers  are  worth 
sixty  cents  a  pound.  Like  the  tax-payer,  or  the  man  who  raises 
cotton,  the  goose  was  intended  to  be  plucked  ;  and  nobly  does 
it  fulfil  its  mission.  The  eagle  may  be  secretary  of  war  among 
birds,  but  the  goose  has  the  most  pluck.  The  crops  that  are 
raised  on  the  goose  are  certain.  Late  frosts,  droughts,  and  a 
failure  to  dig  up  the  weeds,  have  no  influence  on  the  goose's 
crops,  of  which,  properly  speaking,  it  has  four  annually,  —  three 
of  feathers,  and  the  crop  it  stores  its  rations  in.  The  attention 
of  grangers  in  particular  is  called  to  the  following  statistics, 
obtained  from  the  goose-man  himself.  They  are  built  on  the 
same  plan  as  sheep  and  cow  calculations. 

Geese  require  running  water,  lakes,  etc.  Old  geese  yield  one 
pound  ;  two  years  old,  three-quarters  of  a  pound ;  one  year  old, 
half  a  pound  of  feathers.  They  are  picked  three  times  a  year. 
Geese  hatch  at  two  years  old,  and,  as  stated,  raise  an  average 
of  seven  goslings.  They  never  die  under  twenty-one  years. 


YEAR. 

RESULT  IN  FIVE  YEARS. 

Pounds  of 
Feathers. 

Total 
Pounds. 

Price 
per  tb. 

Total 

Value. 

1875- 

200  ganders,  1,000  geese  —  yield  of  feathers,  i  ft 

.60 

$720 

1876. 
1877. 

1878. 

Hatched  7,000  goslings. 
1,200  old  geese  —  yield  of  feathers,  i  tb  each    . 
7,000  one-year-olds  —  yield  of  feathers,  J4  tb  each, 
Hatched  7,000  goslings. 
1,200  old  geese  —  yield  of  feathers,  i  tb  each    .     . 
7,000  two-year-olds  —  yield  of  feathers,  ^  1b  each, 
7,000  one-year-olds  —  yield  of  feathers,  %  tb  each, 
Hatched  7,000  goslings. 
8,200  three-year-olds  and  upwards  —  yield  of  fea- 
thers, i  tb  each     

1,200 
3i5°° 

1,200 

5,250 
3,500 

8,200 

4,7°° 
9,950 

.60 
.60 

2,820 
5,970 

1879. 

7,000  two-year-olds  —  yield  of  feathers,  %  tb  each, 
7,000  one-year-olds  —  yield  of  feathers,  J£  tb  each, 
Hatched  32,000  goslings. 
15,200   three-year-olds    and    upwards  —  yield  of 

5,250 
3,500 

15,200 

16,950 

.60 

10,170 

7,000  two-year-olds  and   upwards  —  yield  of  fea- 

5,250 

32,000  one-year-olds  and  upwards  —  yield  of  fea- 

16,150 

36,950 

.60 

22,170 

Hatched  76,000  goslings. 

470 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


In    six   more   years,  or   in    1885,   the  following  results  are 
inevitable :  — 


YEAR. 

RESULT. 

Pounds  of 
Feathers. 

Total 
Pounds. 

Price 
per  tb. 

Total 
Value. 

1885. 

1,188,800  three-year-olds  and  upwards     .... 

1,188,700 

945,000 

.60 

Hatched  5,634,000  goslings. 

'Just  think  of  it!  —  an  annual  income  of  $2,077,620  for  fea- 
thers alone,  not  counting  what  might  be  obtained  from  goose- 
grease.  The  stock  on  hand,  including  geese  of  all  ages,  would 
be  10,740,000;  and  the  goose-man  would  be  just  in  the  posi- 
tion to  go  ahead,  and  make  money  rapidly.  Doubtless  a  goose- 
wash  might  be  invented,  like  some  of  the  hair-restorers  ;  and, 
by  rubbing  it  on  the  goose,  six  or  eight  crops  a  year  might  be 
raised.  And  a  machine  might  be  invented  by  means  of  which 
the  crop  of  feathers  could  be  mowed  off  in  a  minute.  When 
all  Texas  is  one  vast  goose-ranch,  the  State  debt  can  be  paid 
off,  Galveston  will  have  a  Goose-and-Feather  Exchange  as  big 
as  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  and  then  at  last  peace  and  pros- 
perity will  reach  to  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  State,  and  the 
goose  will  hang  higher  than  Haman. 


THE  SEWING-MACHINE  AGENT. 


471 


CHAPTER    XXXV. 


ELECTING  a  camping-place  on  the 
banks  of  a  creek,  we  had  just  dis- 
mounted from  our  ponies,  when  we 
were  confronted  by  a  man  and  a 
Winchester  carbine.  He  was  camped 
on  the  other  side  of  the  creek,  but 
we  had  not  noticed  him  until  he 
spoke  to  us.  He  said  he  liked  to 
know  something  of  his  neighbors, 
and  would  take  it  as  a  favor  if  we 
would  introduce  ourselves,  and  tell 
who  we  were,  and  what  our  business 
was.  We  told  him.  He  was  evi- 
dently suspicious  of  us ;  for,  while 
he  sat  on  a  fallen  tree  and  talked  to 
us,  he  held  his  carbine  across  his 
knees,  so  that  the  muzzle  pointed 
in  our  direction.  We  said  nothing 
to  him  about  it,  but  we  felt  un- 
comfortable. He  told  us  that  he 
was  a  sewing-machine  agent. 

We  felt  still  more  uncomfortable. 
Would  he  insist  on  selling  us  a  machine  ? 
Under  the  circumstances,  as  our  arms  were 
all  strapped  to  our  saddles,  and  the  man's 
weapon  still  pointed  at  us,  we  would  have 
bought  a  saw-mill  from  him  without  dis- 
cussing the  terms.     He  soon  left,  and  went 
over  to  his  own  camp.     We  did  not  sleep 
well,  for  all  through  the  night  we  felt  that  the  sewing-machine 


472  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

agent's  carbine  was  peering  at  us  through  the  gloom.  In  the 
morning  we  found  the  man  had  gone. 

We  wondered  how  a  sewing-machine  agent  could  make  it 
profitable  to  canvass  in  such  a  wild  and  thinly-settled  country, 
where  there  were  no  inhabitants  except  those  of  cattle-ranches 
and  sheep-camps,  and  a  few  stray  Indians.  We  could  arrive 
at  no  more  satisfactory  conclusion  than  that  sewing-machine 
agents  have  more  enterprise  and  impudence  than  any  other 
class  of  men. 

The  sewing-machine  agent  is  of  all  ages  and  sizes,  and  flour- 
ishes luxuriantly  in  all  climes.  He  travete  in  a  light  spring- 
wagon,  drawn  by  two  sore-backed  ponies.  He  carries  the 
"best  machine  in  the  world"  in  his  wagon,  and  has  its  name, 
in  gilt  letters,  painted  on  the  sides  of  the  vehicle.  He  inhabits 
the  cities  and  towns,  but  is  often  found  in  rural  districts.  He 
knows  that  he  is  a  great  public  benefactor,  and  is,  therefore, 
not  at  all  modest  about  forcing  his  family  blessings  on  the 
people.  When  he  rides  up  to  a  house,  he  hitches  his  horses  to 
the  fence ;  and,  instead  of  standing  at  the  gate,  and  shouting, 
"  Hello !  Mister,  does  your  dog  bite  ?  "  as  other  travellers  do, 
he  boldly  walks  up  to  the  house,  and,  if  no  one  is  around,  takes 
a  seat  on  the  gallery,  and  begins  to  whistle.  He  does  not 
whistle  to  keep  his  courage  up;  for,  confident  that  he  is  en- 
gaged in  a  good  and  noble  cause,  he  does  not  fear  dogs.  He 
is  there  on  a  beneficent  errand.  His  mission  is  to  cheer  the 
wife,  comfort  the  daughter,  and  make  the  old  man  buy  them  a 
new-improved-scroll-spring,  side-bar,  adjustable  sarven-wheel, 
lock-stitch  Grover  and  Singer  sewing-machine.  He  tells  the 
old  lady  that  he  sees  her  health  is  giving  way,  and  that  the  old 
Wheeler  and  Baker  machine  that  she  uses  is  the  cause  of  it. 
He  has  known  fifty  ladies  whom  that  style  of  machine  has 
hurried  to  an  untimely  end  and  an  early  grave.  He  tells  the 
daughter  that  he  is  unmarried,  going  to  settle  in  the  county, 
and  hopes  she  will  let  him  call  on  her  when  he  is  in  the  vicinity. 
He  informs  the  old  farmer  that  he  —  the  old  farmer — has  more 
good  agricultural  sense  than  any  man  he  has  yet  met  in  the 
State.  Then  he  tightens  up  the  fifth  wheel  of  the  machine,  and 
starts  it  to  sew.  He  shows  how  much  lighter  it  runs  than  any 


THE  SEWING-MACHINE  AGENT.  473 

other  machine,  how  easy  it  is  to  adjust,  and  how  much  superior 
the  new  turbine  take-up  is  to  the  old  four-motion  crank  still 
used  in  all  the  rival  machines.  He  asks  them  to  examine  the 
mould-board  on  the  off  stationary  arm,  and  the  French-burr 
take-up  on  the  stern,  and  then  inquires  if  they  do  not  think 
that  that  is  the  perfection  of  mechanism,  and  very  unlike  the 
cheap  rattletraps  that  all  the  other  companies  are  now  making, 
with  a  view  to  swindle  the  public ;  filling  their  own  coffers, 
while  they  ruin  the  health  of  thousands  of  mothers,  and  wear 
the  bloom  off  the  cheek  of  the  fairest  in  the  land.  He  shows 
how  difficult  it  is  to  get  the  machine  out  of  order.  He  war- 
rants it  for  fifteen  years.  Then  he  flutes  and  fells,  hems  and 
braids,  and  never  fails  to  turn  loose  that  originality,  "sew  it 
seams,"  while  he  speaks  of  the  simplicity,  durability,  and  elas- 
ticity of  the  stitch. 

A  good  sewing-machine  agent's  tongue  will  make  seventy- 
five  oscillations  and  three  laps  a  minute,  and  keep  on  the  track 
nine  consecutive  hours  without  refreshments.  It  is  not  to  be 
inferred,  nowever,  that  the  sewing-machine  agent  is  indifferent 
to  refreshments.  His  stomach  is  like  his  machine, — always 
in  order,  and  adjusted  to  any  size,  style,  thickness,  or  quality 
of  goods.  He  eats  corn-bread  and  fat  bacon  when  he  cannot 
get  chicken  and  cake.  He  can  eat  a  pound  of  butter  to  a 
square  foot  of  corn-bread ;  and,  when  there  is  no  butter,  he  is 
equally  fatal  to  molasses. 

The  travelling  sewing-machine  adjuster  is  a  second-hand 
agent,  who  travels  around  the  country  repairing  sewing- 
machines.  He  is  very  much  out  of  repair  himself,  and  always 
hungry.  In  private  life  he  speaks  with  a  profane  accent,  and 
buttons  his  shirt  with  a  nail.  His  tools  consist  of  a  screw- 
driver and  a  piece  of  emery-paper.  The  machine  that  he 
adjusts  is  invariably  very  much  out  of  order  —  he  says.  He 
is  surprised  that  the  lady  can  use  it  at  all.  He  takes  it  out 
into  the  shed,  unscrews  it  all,  polishes  it  with  kerosene-oil,  and 
brightens  the  rusty  places  with  emery-paper.  This  usually 
takes  him  until  after  dinner-time.  He  charges  five  dollars  for 
his  work,  and  ten  cents  for  the  new  suction-valve  that  he  put 
in,  in  place  of  the  one  that  was  worn  out.  He  is  migratory  in 


474  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

his  habits  ;  and  his  invariable  rule  is,  never  to  call  back  in  the 
same  neighborhood  again.  The  sewing-machine  adjuster  is 
bold,  but  discreet. 

A  man  once  told  me  that  he  knew  a  sewing-machine  agent 
who  had  a  conscience.  It  was  difficult  to  believe ;  but  there 
are  exceptions  to  all  rules,  and  nature  sometimes  performs 
strange  freaks.  The  agent  referred  to  was  troubled  about  the 
hereafter,  and  wrote  to  the  answers-to-correspondents  editor 
of  "The  New- York  Ledger,"  asking  if  it  were  possible  for  a 
sewing-machine  agent  to  be  a  Christian.  The  editor  replied, 
"  With  God  there  is  nothing  impossible." 

A  great  part  of  the  prairies  in  Western  Texas  is  covered 
with  a  thick  growth  of  mesquite-trees.  The  mesquite  resem- 
bles the  peach-tree  more  closely  than  any  other  I  can  think  of ; 
and,  when  a  stranger  sees  a  mesquite  chaparral  for  the  first 
time,  he  can  hardly  realize  that  he  is  not  looking  on  a  peach- 
orchard.  There  is  no  more  valuable  natural  growth  in  Texas 
than  the  mesquite.  As  fire-wood  it  has  no  equal  in  the  matter 
of  making  hot  fires.  Its  bark  is  more  valuable  as  a  factor  in 
the  tanning  process  in  hot  climates  than  the  bark  of  any  other 
tree.  It  penetrates  the  hide  much  more  quickly  than  oak  bark. 
From  the  tree  there  exudes,  during  the  summer,  a  gum  that  is 
said  to  be  superior  to  gum  arabic.  This  gum  can  be  found  in 
such  quantities  that  it  will  pay  well  for  gathering  it.  Exceed- 
ingly rich  and  nutritious  beans  grow  on  the  mesquite-tree. 
Horses  and  cattle  are  very  fond  of  them,  and  a  horse  will  grow 
fat  more  quickly  on  mesquite  beans  than  on  corn  or  any  other 
cereal.  I  have  seen  this  demonstrated.  Then,  if  you  cut  down 
the  tree,  and  do  not  want  to  make  fence-rails  out  of  it,  you  can 
extract  from  it  a  superior  quality  of  croton-oil.  The  mesquite- 
tree  possesses  other  valuable  qualities  ;  and  the  only  thing  I 
have  heard  said  derogatory  to  its  usefulness  is,  that  its  branches 
are  not  sufficiently  strong,  and  do  not  grow  high  enough,  to 
hang  horse-thieves  on.  For  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  inland 
from  the  coast  the  mesquite  is  not  to  be  found ;  nor  does  it 
grow  along  the  river-bottoms.  It  grows  in  the  comparatively 
rainless  portions  of  Texas,  and  is  to  be  found  only  on  the 
prairies,  where  the  soil  is  dry.  Nature  sometimes  makes 


THE  DOCTOR'S  DEADLY  AIM.  475 

strange  adjustments  of  her  benefits  and  her  niggardliness.  It 
is  said  to  be  a  fact,  that  in  exceptionally  dry  seasons,  when  the 
grass  is  withered  and  burned  up,  the  mesquite-tree  invariably 
bears  a  most  abundant  crop  of  beans,  furnishing  excellent  food 
for  the  cattle,  that  would  otherwise  suffer  from  the  effects  of 
the  drought. 

The  woods  and  the  prairies,  the  hillsides  and  the  valleys,  were 
full  of  life  as  we  rode  along.  A  crash  among  the  branches, 
and  a  deer  would  bound  across  our  path,  giving  the  doctor  only 
time  enough  to  get  excited  over  unbuckling  his  rifle  from  his 
saddle  before  it  was  out  of  sight.  The  redbird,  in  his  gorgeous 
crimson  suit  and  jaunty  top-knot,  would  silently  flit  from  bough 
to  bough  in  front  of  us,  while,  high  up  on  the  topmost  branch 
of  a  live-oak,  the  sober-hued  mocking-bird  made  the  echoes 
answer  to  his  joyous  notes.  Now  a  chaparral  cock,  with  an 
absurdly  long  tail,  out  of  all  proportion  to  his  lean  body,  would 
trot  up  the  dusty  path,  and  dodge  into  the  thicket.  Then  it 
would  be  a  jack*rabbit  suddenly  starting  at  our  feet,  and  bound- 
ing off  with  an  air  of  surprise  and  alarm.  When  the  sun  went 
down,  the  voice  of  the  whip-poor-will,  the  cricket,  and  the  owl, 
would  reach  us  in  the  sombre  gloaming,  as,  weary  and  tired, 
we  jogged  along  in  search  of  a  suitable  spot  to  camp  for  the 
night.  At  no  time  in  all  our  journey  were  we  out  of  sight  or 
hearing  of  some  bird,  beast,  or  "varmint." 

The  doctor  shot  a  great  deal,  but  with  very  little  result. 
Almost  every  evening  we  had  either  a  quail,  a  wild  turkey,  or 
a  venison  ham  for  supper.  The  doctor  talked  a  great  deal 
about  the  quail  and  other  game  costing  nothing,  and  went  into 
calculations  showing,  that,  except  coffee,  flour,  and  salt,  a  man 
might  have  nothing  to  buy,  and  yet  live  comfortably  for  an 
indefinite  time  on  the  frontier. 

Then  the  reporter  made  a  calculation.  He  counted  the 
number  of  times  the  doctor  discharged  his  gun  during  one 
day,  calculating  the  value  of  the  cartridges  used.  Then  he 
divided  the  amount  by  the  two  quail  and  the  one  small  rabbit 
that  were  the  result  of  the  doctor's  deadly  aim,  and  demon- 
strated that  the  average  cost  of  each  carcass  was  fifty-five 
cents,  not  counting  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  gun.  After 


476  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

that,  the  doctor  was  oppressively  silent  when  he  unloaded  his 
game-bag  in  the  evenings. 

"I  never  felt  such  a  draught,"  said  the  reporter,  who  was 
sitting  between  two  trees  in  front  of  the  fire,  after  supper. 

"I  have  always  had  a  prejudice  against  drafts  since  the  second 
year  of  the  war,"  said  the  doctor. 

We  refused  to  smile  at  this  attempt  on  the  doctor's  part  to 
say  a  smart  thing.  It  is  evidently  a  severe  strain  on  the  doc- 
tor's system  to  produce  one  of  these  chunks  of  wit,  and  he  does 
not  get  over  it  for  hours  afterwards.  As  he  seldom  attempts 
any  thing  of  the  kind,  and  as  it  hurts  him  so  much  when  he 
does,  it  was  probably  unkind  of  us  to  pretend  not  to  see  the 
point. 

The  reporter  stretched  himself  out  on  a  buffalo  robe,  clasped 
his  hands  behind  his  neck,  settled  his  head  on  his  saddle,  and, 
after  lighting  one  of  those  cigars  of  the  kind  that  should  be 
smoked  on  top  of  a  shot-tower  on  a  windy  day,  he  proceeded,  — 

"In  the  fall  of  1863  the  Federal  troops,  under  Gen.  Warren 
and  favorable  auspices,  occupied  Indianola,  which  is  situated 
on  a  very  narrow  peninsula  on  the  coast  of  Texas,  and  is,  in 
fact,  almost  an  island,  the  waters  of  the  Gulf  nearly  meeting 
in  the  rear  of  the  town.  As  the  bayous  and  lagoons  around 
Indianola  cannot  be  forded,  and  are  infested  with  a  breed  of 
large  mosquitoes  called  gallinippers,  one  would  suppose  the 
place  sufficiently  fortified  to  keep  out  intruders.  Anybody 
who  has  ever  been  there  will  have  difficulty  in  understanding 
how  a  stranger  could  get  into  the  town  without  maps,  dark- 
lanterns,  and  a  native  guide,  or  what  he  would  want  to  get  in 
there  for,  anyhow. 

"  The  Yankees  knew  the  desperate  character  of  the  men  who 
had  been  unable,  thus  far,  to  mingle  personally  in  the  strife,  and, 
knowing  that  there  were  many  of  that  kind  in  Texas,  they  took 
every  possible  precaution  to  protect  themselves.  There  was  no 
fear  of  the  ordinary  Confederate  soldier ;  but  the  fellows  who 
had  been  making  war-to-the-knife  speeches  for  three  years  had 
to  be  guarded  against.  The  Federal  troops  began  to  add  to  the 
natural  fortifications  of  the  place.  They  also  threw  up  mos- 
quito-bars to  protect  themselves  from  the  Confederate  mosqui- 


TEXAS  DURING    THE    WAR.  477 

toes,  and  waged  unrelenting  war  on  the  fleas ;  which  were  all 
Confederate  fleas,  and  opposed  to  any  thing  in  the  nature  of  a 
bloodless  solution  of  the  fratricidal  struggle. 

"Notwithstanding  the  natural  advantages  of  the  place,  the 
Federals  threw  up  four  lines  of  breastworks,  and  built  half  a 
dozen  forts.  They  also  placed  the  gunboats  within  grapeshot 
range,  broadside  on.  Twenty-five  thousand  men  could  not  have 
captured  the  town." 

"  How  did  you  find  out  all  this  ? "  asked  the  doctor. 

"We  went  right  into  the  town,  a  whole  company  of  us, 
armed  with  nothing  but  carbines,  and,  after  staying  some  time, 
came  out  again  without  the  loss  of  a  man  or  a  horse." 

"  Did  the  Federals  "  — 

"  Oh  !  they  were  gone  two  days  before." 

"  Yes,  I  see,"  said  the  doctor :  "  they  must  have  found  out 
that  you  were  coming." 

"They  were  glad  to  get  away  in  time,  no  doubt.  They  left 
in  transports,"  said  the  reporter ;  and  he  looked  at  the  doctor, 
to  see  if  he  recognized  this  play  on  words,  that  has  been  used 
with  reference  to  maritime  excursions  from  the  days  of  Noah 
down  to  the  present  time. 

"  Was  there  much  suffering  down  here  during  the  war  ? " 
asked  the  doctor. 

"  Not  much  in  this  part  of  Texas  ;  for  most  of  the  cotton  that 
got  out  of  the  South  went  through  Brownsville  or  San  Anto- 
nio. The  consequence  was,  that  there  was  plenty  of  money  in 
circulation,  — real  hard  money,  not  stuff  that  the  rats  could  eat. 
The  Federal  government  made  no  effort  to  prevent  this  trade. 
There  were  hundreds  of  ships  loading  and  unloading  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande.  The  whole  trans-Mississippi  de- 
partment was  supplied  with  arms,  clothing,  ammunition,  Con- 
federate song-books,  and  every  thing  else  calculated  to  aid  and 
comfort  the  States  in  rebellion.  The  regiment  of  which  I  was 
a  member  was  stationed  in  Western  Texas,  where  there  were 
no  Federal  troops  at  that  time ;  and  so  we  suffered  but  little. 
Sometimes,  however,  it  was  rather  rough  on  the  aristocratic 
sons  of  Mars,  belonging  to  my  company,  to  have  to  shave  them- 
selves, and  shine  their  own  boots.  But  we  had  made  up  our 


478  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

minds  to  endure  all  such  hardships  rather  than  submit  to 
Yankee  rule :  so  we  bore  our  suffering  in  silence ;  at  least,  some 
of  us  did.  Other  Confederate  troops  had  to  suffer  in  Virginia 
and  other  places  :  why  should  we  not  bear  our  share  of  the 
general  sorrow  and  misery,  even  to  the  extent  of  sleeping  out 
in  the  woods,  with  nothing  but  a  buffalo  robe  between  us  and 
the  hard  ground  ?  We  bore  this,  and  more  too,  with  Spartan 
fortitude,  and  never  thought  of  giving  up  the  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence, until  Gen.  Hebert  issued  that  inhuman  order  that 
provided  for  only  five  wagons  to  each  company.  He  was  a  mili- 
tary martinet.  What  sympathy  had  he  for  the  suffering  sol- 
dier ?  He  did  not  have  to  endure  hardships,  as  they  had. 
When  that  order  came,  cutting  down  our  transportation,  there 
were  some  who  wished,  in  their  rage,  that  the  war  was  already 
over.  Our  captain,  Dick  Taylor,  who  had  to  come  down  to 
one  wagon  for  his  mess,  said  he  was  afraid  we  had  underrated 
the  power  of  the  hireling  foe.  He  had  to  abandon  his  centre- 
table  and  two  of  his  feather-beds.  That  was  merely  the  begin- 
ning of  his  suffering.  As  the  mad  struggle  progressed,  the 
hardships  increased,  until  they  became  almost  intolerable.  I 
remember  the  morning  that  the  captain's  colored  waiter  told 
him  that  there  would  be  no  milk  for  his  coffee,  as  the  cow  had 
stampeded  in  the  night.  He  raved  and  talked  like  the  presi- 
dent of  a  county  convention.  He  cursed  everybody  whom  he 
thought  to  blame  for  the  establishment  of  the  Confederacy." 

"  He  could  not  have  been  much  of  a  patriot,"  said  the  doctor. 

"You  see,  he  had  not  had  much  experience  at  being  a 
patriot,  and  we  were  all  of  us  a  little  awkward  about  it  at 
first." 

"What  battles  did  you  assist  in  waging?"  asked  the  doctor. 

" Lemme  see,"  said  the  journalist:  "I  was  in  the  siege  and 
final  capture  by  assault  of  Indianola,  after  the  enemy  had  re- 
treated in  dismay,  and  I  was  in  the  battle  of  Norris's  Bridge, 
where  twenty-seven  shells  were  hurled  at  our  captain  in  rapid 
succession." 

"  I  have  never  heard  of  those  battles,"  said  the  doctor  in  an 
incredulous  tone. 

"  It's  never  too  late  to  learn.     I'll  tell  you  all  about  them 


THE  REPORTER'S    WAR  EXPERIENCE.         479 

now,  if  you  want  to  be  carried  back  to  the  sanguinary  field,  and 
have  got  another  cigar  on  your  person.  In  the  early  part  of 
the  war  our  losses  were  pretty  heavy.  The  doctors  were  able 
to  procure  medicine  then  ;  but  afterwards,  owing  to  the  block- 
ade, physic  was  scarce,  and  the  death-rate  was  light." 

It  was  dark  now,  and  the  fire  was  nearly  dead.  I  could  not 
see  the  reporter,  but  I  could  distinctly  hear  him  wink  at  me. 
The  doctor  poked  the  dying  embers  in  a  vicious  way  with  the 
skillet,  and  said,  "This  is  no  subject  to  joke  about.  If  you  can 
talk  seriously  about  the  battle  you  speak  of,  I  would  like  to 
hear  the  particulars." 

"The  Federal  troops,"  began  the  journalist,  "did  not  attempt 
to  seize  the  whole  State  of  Texas,  until  Gen.  Banks,  with  a 
large  army,  came  up  Red  River,  in  the  fall  of  1864.  Then 
Gen.  Warren  occupied  Indianola  with  three  or  four  thousand 
troops,  and,  as  I  have  already  stated,  fortified  it  strongly. 
Gen.  Magruder  issued  a  suggestion  to  Duffs's  regiment,  Thirty- 
third  Texas  Cavalry.  He  suggested  that  they  do  picket-duty 
around  Indianola.  I  say  'suggested,'  because  the  colonel  of 
the  Thirty-third  had  too  much  style  and  Southern  chivalry  to 
allow  of  being  ordered. 

"  I  belonged  to  the  Thirty-third.  We  were  only  five  or  six 
hundred  strong ;  but  fifty  thousand  thoroughly  disciplined  men 
could  not  have  come  nearer  freezing  to  death  that  winter,  on 
the  bald  prairies,  than  we  did.  War  showed  us  his  wrinkled 
front,  although  we  did  not  want  to  see  it.  I  never  knew  any 
thing  about  the  horrors  of  war  until  I  stood  guard,  in  a  wet 
norther,  on  that  prairie  thirty  miles  square.  It  was  not  until 
I  got  the  rheumatism  in  one  of  my  legs,  from  exposure,  that  I 
began  to  perceive  what  an  outrage  on  civilization  and  humanity 
the  firing  on  the  old  flag  at  Sumter  really  was. 

"  While  we  poor  but  proud  and  haughty  Confederates  were  ex- 
posed to  the  rude  blasts  of  winter,  living  principally  on  beef  badly 
cooked,  the  Federal  hirelings,  who  came  from  the  North,  and 
who  never  felt  comfortable  unless  there  was  ice  on  the  ground, 
were  in  nice  quarters  in  the  town,  drawing  rations  of  the  finest 
quality.  The  Yankees  in  Indianola  were  a  bad  set.  They  were 
the  most  fiendish  scoundrels  I  ever  came  in  contact  with." 


480 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


"Did  you  actually  come  in  contact  with  them?"  asked  the 
doctor. 

"  We  were  very  near  doing  so  at  the  passage  of  Chocolate 
Bayou,  or,  rather,  at  the  battle  of  Norris's  Bridge.  Our  orbits 
would  have  been  dangerously  contiguous  if  we  had  not  been 
well  mounted.  That  we  did  not  come  in  contact  with  them 
was  not  their  fault.  They  could  not  overtake  us.  But  I'll  give 


COL.    G.    W.    BRACKENRIDGE,    THE    FEDERAL    BROTHER    IN    CAMP. 

you  an  instance  of  how  utterly  destitute  of  all  natural  feeling 
they  were. 

"The  major  of  our  regiment  was  Tom  Brackenridge.  He 
was  with  us,  doing  picket-duty  on  the  outside.  There  was  a 
brother  of  his,  Col.  G.  W.  Brackenridge,  a  paymaster  with  the 
Yankees  at  Indianola.  The  Confederate  brother  sent  a  kindly 
message  to  his  Yankee  brother,  stating  that  he  trusted  the 
war  would  soon  be  ended,  and  that  he  hoped  the  day  was  not 
far  distant  when  they  would  meet  once  more,  under  more  pleas- 
ant auspices,  in  their  childhood's  happy  home.  Now,  what 
answer  do  you  think  that  Yankee  long-lost  brother,  with  a 
strawberry-mark,  sent  back  ? " 


"FREEZING  HIS  DAMNED  REBEL  LEGS   OFF."  481 

"  I  can't  imagine.  Perhaps  he  sent  him  a  basket  of  cham- 
pagne." 

"Not  exactly.  He  sent  back  word,  that  if  the  other  was 
really  his  brother,  which  he  trusted  was  not  the  case,  he  hoped 
he  would  freeze  his  damned  rebel  legs  off,  out  on  the  prairie, 
before  the  winter  was  over." 

"That  was  rather  a  heartless  remark  to  make  about  any 
one,"  interrupted  the  doctor. 

"Washington's  army  at  Valley  Forge  could  not  compete 
with  us  in  the  way  of  suffering.  They  were  used  to  it:  we 
were  not.  The  Yankees  would  not  leave  Indianola;  and,  of 
course,  as  long  as  they  remained  there,  we  had  to  do  picket- 


MAJOR    TOM    BRACKENRIDGE,    THE    CONFEDERATE    BROTHER    IN    CAMP. 

duty  out  in  the  cold.  They  knew  well  enough  what  a  favor  it 
would  be  to  us,  to  be  allowed  to  return  to  our  homes ;  but  they 
would  not  go  away,  and  they  never  offered  us  a  blanket  to  keep 
oursefves  warm.  Such  are  the  cruel  necessities  and  inhuman 
requirements  of  war. 

"They,  however,  came  out  sometimes,  and  warmed  us  up. 
They  made  us  take  exercise ;  but  it  did  us  good :  we  travelled 
31 


482 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


for  our  health.  The  Yankees  did  not  seem  to  feel  the  cold 
weather  in  the  least.  One  of  our  scouts  ventured  close  to  the 
town  during  the  prevalence  of  a  very  cold  norther,  and  he  re- 
ported that  he  saw  whole  battalions  of  Yankees  bathing  in  the 
Gulf.  He  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  scouts  we  had.  He 
would  scout  around  miles  of  truth  for  days  at  a  time  without 

capturing  a  handful 
of  it." 

"It  seems  to  me," 
said  the  doctor  medi- 
tatively, "that  at 
some  previous  period 
of  my  existence  a 
gentleman  connect- 
ed with  the  press  of 
Texas  promised  to 
give  us  a  graphic  de- 
scription of  the  battle 
of  Norris's  Bridge." 
"  Now  that  you 
mention  it,  I  remem- 
ber that  I  made  that 
promise,"  said  the 
reporter.  "  I  will  pro- 
ceed at  once  to  bring 
on  the  engagement. 
Norris's  Bridge  is, 
or  was,  on  Chocolate 
Bayou,  between  the 
towns  of  Indianola 
and  Lavacca.  Both  these  towns  are  on  the  coast,  six  or  eight 
miles  apart.  Before  the  war,  all  goods  shipped  to  South-western 
Texas  were  landed  at  either  Indianola  or  Port  Lavacca,  and 
there  was  a  bitter  rivalry  between  the  two  places.  Of  late, 
however,  both  towns  have  become  so  dead  that  there  te  not 
vitality  enough  left  in  them  to  carry  on  a  quarrel  about  any 
thing ;  but,  at  the  time  I  speak  of,  the  representatives  of  the 
commercial  and  shipping  interests  of  each  place  were  always 


•THEY    MADE    US    TAKE    EXERCISE. 


PRECIPITATING   THE    CONFLICT.  483 

quarrelling,  fighting,  and  under-estimating  the  amount  of  each 
other's  business." 

"The  battle  of  Norris's  Bridge  was  fought  between  the 
Lavacca  and  Indianola  merchants,  was  it  ? "  queried  the  doctor. 

The  Texas  journalist  replied,  "As  I  see  you  want  gore,  I 
shall  precipitate  the  conflict  at  once.  I  told  you,  I  think,  that 
Gen.  Warren  and  his  troops  were  occupying  Indianola,  and 
keeping  us  occupied  in  watching  them  in  all  sorts  of  bad 
weather.  Our  principal  picket-station  was  at  Norris's  Bridge. 
There  was  a  house  there  in  which  lived  the  man  Norris,  who 
levied  blackmail  on  all  who  had  occasion  to  pass  over  the 
bridge  in  times  of  peace.  The  bridge  was  not  a  remarkable 
one  ;  but,  as  the  bayou  could  not  be  forded,  it  was  very  popular. 
We  had  about  forty  men,  who  were  sent  out  in  detachments 
to  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Indianola,  returning  every  morn- 
ing, when  relieved  by  another  detail  from  the  regimental  camp, 
six  or  eight  miles  distant. 

"  One  evening  it  was  my  turn  for  picket-duty.  Fortunately 
the  weather  was  warm  and  pleasant,  as  it  usually  is  in  Texas 
after  a  norther  ;  and,  if  we  had  had  any  positive  assurance  that 
the  Yankees  would  not  interfere  with  us  while  on  picket-duty, 
we  would  not  have  cared  if  the  war  kept  right  on.  Having  no 
assurance,  we  made  every  preparation  for  an  active  and  vigor- 
ous campaign.  I  borrowed  all  the  blankets  I  could  get,  that  I 
might  be  protected  from  any  change  in  the  weather.  I  cooked 
a  quantity  of  corn-bread  and  bacon,  which  was  all  the  variety 
of  provisions  the  Confederacy  furnished,  to  enable  us  to  main- 
tain the  struggle  against  the  Northern  hordes.  Having  sad- 
dled my  war-mustang,  and  loaded  him  up  to  the  gunwale,  I 
told  the  sergeant  I  was  ready  for  the  fray,  and  that  he  might 
give  the  order  to  march.  The  sergeant  was  an  old  soldier,  who 
had  been  in  Virginia  during  the  first  year  of  the  war,  and  had 
been  frequently  known  to  shake  his  head  and  dissent  when 
some  of  the  boys  who  had  not  had  any  actual  experience  on 
the  tented  field  used  to  talk  about  how  easy  it  would  be.  to 
annihilate  the  Yankees  if  they  would  only  give  us  a  chan.ce. 
He  would  tell  us  —  to  encourage  us,  probably  —  about  the  effect 
of  large  shells  exploding  in  the  midst  of  a  company  of  soldiers, 


484  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

and  how  even  he  had  to  run  several  miles  to  avoid  being  im- 
posed on  by  Federal  soldiers.  Most  of  us  thought  he  must  be 
lacking  in  nerve ;  and  there  were  rumors  to  the  effect  that  he 
was  not  loyal  to  the  Confederacy,  because  he  seemed  to  have 
so  much  respect  for  the  United-States  army.  When  I  told 
him  I  was  ready,  he  looked  at  me,  and  asked  me  where  my  car- 
bine, revolver,  and  ammunition  were.  .1  had  left  them  in  camp. 
He  suggested  that  I  should  take  them  along,  as  I  might  need 
them  some  time.  Upon  reflection,  I  agreed  with  him.  Some- 
body might  steal  them  before  I  got  back.  I  then  put  all  my 
armor  on,  and  we  were  inspected.  There  was  a  solemnity 
about  that  inspection  that  impressed  me,  for  the  first  time, 
with  a  fear  that  the  Union  of  our  forefathers  was  in  danger. 

"  Thus  far  our  regiment  had  never  had  the  coveted  opportu- 
nity of  crossing  swords  with  the  foe ;  and  I,  in  particular,  was 
getting  a  little  rusty  in  the  art  of  war.  I  knew  no  fear,  how- 
ever ;  for  had  I  not  often  heard  that  one  Confederate  could  eat 
up  ten  ^ankees,  even  when  he  was  not  hungry  ?  The  reason, 
I  suppose,  that  we  carried  any  rations  at  all,  was  because  of  the 
uncertainty  of  meeting  and  eating  Federal  hirelings." 

The  doctor  yawned  until  the  hinges  of  his  jaws  creaked, 
and  asked  if  the  battle  of  Norris's  Bridge  was  fought  before 
or  after  Lee  had  surrendered. 

Our  friend,  however,  paid  little  attention  to  the  question. 
Merely  remarking  that  it  would  have  come  off  much  sooner  if 
he  had  been  allowed  to  tell  his  story  without  interruptions,  he 
proceeded, — 

"We  finally  mounted  our  horses  ;  and,  forming  by  twos,  we 
rode  in  the  direction  of  the  doomed  city.  We  had  a  good  deal 
of  conversation  on  the  way ;  but  much  of  it,  owing  to  my  defec- 
tive memory,  is  irretrievably  lost.  [Grunts  of  satisfaction  from 
the  doctor.]  We  had  only  gone  about  four  miles,  when  we  came 
upon  signs  of  the  enemy.  A  detachment  of  Federal  cavalry, 
having  a  large  infantry  force  to  protect  them,  came  out  of 
Indianola,  about  a  week  before,  to  procure  beef.  They  only 
remained  out  a  short  time.  It  was  in  their  deserted  camp  that 
we  discovered  their  'signs.'  There  were  evidences,  on  every 
hand,  of  the  paternal  care  that  Uncle  Sam  extended  to  his  sol- 


WEEPING    OVER  AN  EMPTY  SARDINE-BOX.     485 

diers  ;  and  these  evidences  had  a  very  depressing  effect  on  us. 
One  of  my  comrades,  who  had  been  raised  in  the  lap  of  luxury 
until  he  went  into  the  army,  picked  up  an  empty  can,  and  then 
burst  into  tears.  It  was  almost  more  than  he  could  bear,  for 
it  called  up  hallowed  recollections  of  the  happy  past.  On  the 
can  was  a  label ;  and  on  the  label  we  read,  '  Baltimore  Cove 
Oysters.'  There  were  many  cans  lying  around  with  exasper- 
ating labels  on  them,  but  they  were  all  empty.  It  was  a  touch- 
ing sight  to  see  those  hardy  troopers  hang  in  silent  misery  over 
a  vacant  sardine-box,  or  drop  a  tear  into  an  untenanted  pickle- 
jar. 

"  Corporal  Wilkins  roused  himself  from  the  inspection  of  a 
can  where  preserved  strawberries  had  once  resided,  and,  cast- 
ing his  ration  of  miserable  corn-bread  on  the  prairie,  he  said 
that  he  had  just  realized  what  an  outrage  firing  on  the  old  flag 
at  Sumter  was ;  and  then  he  fell  upon  his  faithful  colored  ser- 
vant, and  almost  beat  the  life  out  of  him,  because  he  was  a  rep- 
resentative of  the  race  that  had  brought  all  this  suffering  and 
privation  on  us.  The  most  thrilling  circumstance  was  the  find- 
ing of  a  quart-bottle  labelled  '  Old  Rye  Whiskey.'  When  the 


CHEERING    THEIR    DROOPING    SPIRITS    WITH    A   SMELL. 

sergeant  discovered  it,  and  held  it  up  to  view,  a  shout  went  up 
that  would  have  peeled  the  bark  off  a  tree,  if  there  had  been 
one  on  the  prairie,  and  would  have  been  a  severe  strain  on  the 
capacity  of  the  largest  echo  in  the  land.  In  a  moment  it  was 
discovered  that  the  Yankees  had  neglected  to  leave  the  whis- 
key, but  the  smell  was  in  the  bottle  still. 


486  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  It  was  a  never-to-be-forgotten  sight,  to  see  us  poor  and  hun- 
gry, but  proud  and  patriotic  rebels  drawn  up  in  line,  and  then 
in  single  file  marched  pass  the  sergeant,  who  held  out  the  bot- 
tle, that  each  one,  as  he  passed,  might  revive  sacred  memories, 
and  cheer  up  his  drooping  spirits  with  a  smell. 

"  The  sergeant,  taking  a  mean  advantage  of  his  authority, 
retained  possession  of  the  bottle. 

"  The  finding  of  this  camp  had  a  good  effect :  it  made  us 
fearless  of  being  captured. 

"  One  said,  '  A  government  that  furnishes  its  troops  with 
that  kind  of  rations  is  invincible.'  Another,  holding  up  an 
empty  pickle-bottle,  said,  in  the  language  of  Caractacus  when 
taken  to  Rome,  '  How  can  people  possessed  of  such  luxuries 
at  home,'  etc  ? " 

We  spent  next  day  in  a  small  village,  where  the  reporter  had 
some  business. 

A  strip  of  sand  a  quarter  of  a  mile  long  and  twenty  yards 
wide ;  on  each  side,  at  irregular  intervals,  about  twenty  wooden 
buildings,  mostly  one  story  in  height,  and  very  much  in  need 
of  paint ;  a  little  schoolhouse,  without  any  teacher  or  pupils,  at 
one  end  of  the  street ;  a  toll-bridge  over  a  creek  at  the  other 
end  ;  half  way  up  the  street,  a  two-story  house  with  a  sign  over 
the  door  that  tells  the  wayfarer  that  he  can  get  meals  at  all 
hours  ;  opposite  this,  a  grocery-store  and  post-office  ;  next  door 
to  the  post-office,  a  saloon  ;  a  cross-eyed  negro,  leaning  against 
a  hitching-post  in  front  of  the  saloon,  whistling  to  a  spotted 
dog  that  is  lying  in  the  middle  of  the  street,  with  his  whole 
attention  concentrated  on  an  invisible  but  apparently  energetic 
flea ;  a  public  well  with  nothing  in  it  but  two  or  three  broken 
bricks,  an  empty  oyster-can,  and  a  dead  cat,  —  simmering  in 
the  hot  and  blistering  rays  of  a  July  sun,  these  are  all  the  out- 
ward and  visible  signs  of  a  typical  Texas  village,  as  we  ride 
through  it,  and  stop  in  front  of  what  is,  by.courtesy,  called  a 
hotel.  All  the  inhabitants  of  the  place,  except  the  cross-eyed 
negro,  the  spotted  dog,  and  the  flea,  seem  to  be  dead  or  asleep. 
After  shouting  "  Hello ! "  a  number  of  times,  the  landlord,  a 
tired-looking  man,  comes  slowly  to  the  door,  rubbing  his  eyes, 


4    TYPICAL    TEXAS    VILLAGE.  487 

and  says  "  Howdy  ?  Alight,  gentlemen."  He  says  it  in  a  tone 
that  discourages  the  hope  we  have  had  that  the  landlord  would 
be  glad  to  see  us,  and  would  kill  the  fatted  chicken  for  our 
entertainment.  He  kicks  a  negro  awake,  and  sends  him  to 
the  stable  with  our  horses,  ushers  us  into  a  room  where  there 
is  a  tin  basin,  and  a  pitcher  without  any  water  in  it,  a  roller- 
towel,  a  couch  with  its  entrails  sticking  out,  a  mirror  that,  when 
we  look  in  it,  shows  us  an  elongated,  bulging-eyed  face,  that  we 
have  a  distinct  recollection  of  having  seen  more  than  once  on 
a  new  brass  door-knob.  The  unpainted  wooden  walls  are  deco- 
rated with  a  railroad-map,  two  fashion-plates  from  "  The  Young 
Ladies'  Journal"  of  A.D.  1868,  and  a  set  of  plough -harness 
hanging  on  a  nail.  The  landlord  wakes  up  a  tall  woman,  who 
has  been  asleep  on  the  back  porch,  and  tells  her  to  get  "a 
meal's  vittals "  ready  for  three  travellers.  She  goes  to  the 
kitchen,  and  returns  in  an  hour  with  a  plateful  of  yellow  biscuit, 
a  tin  pot  containing  coffee,  and  a  dish  of  fried  bacon.  This  is 
all  we  have  for  dinner,  except  flies  and  a  strong  smell  of  the 
stable,  consequent  on  having  the  negro  who  took  care  of  our 
horses  to  wait  on  the  table. 

It  makes  us  restless  to  think  that  we  have  to  stay  all  the 
evening  in  the  village.  How  to  pass  the  time  cheerfully  is  a 
problem.  To  say  the  least  of  it,  the  place  is  dull.  In  a  cemetery 
one  could  find  some  interest  in  reading  the  inscriptions  on  the 
tombstones  ;  but  here  there  seems  to  be  nothing  to  read,  except 
some  information  on  the  railroad-map  regarding  the  Q.  B.  M. 
road  being  the  shortest  and  most  direct  route  to  somewhere. 
The  citizens  seem  to  wake  up  to  some  extent  in  the  evening. 
The  cross-eyed  negro,  with  a  bored  expression  on  his  face,  and 
a  bucksaw  in  his  hand,  begins  sawing  wood  in  the  back-yard  of 
the  saloon.  A  man  from  the  country  comes  in,  and  buys  a 
plug  of  tobacco,  asks  the  storekeeper  if  he  knows  what  new 
oats  are  selling  at  by  the  bushel,  and  if  he  has  noticed,  any 
time  during  last  week,  a  man  pass,  riding  on  a  brown  mule,  and 
then  he  rides  away.  Several  children  come  out,  and  play  in  a 
yard  opposite  ;  the  grocer  pursues  a  goat  out  into  the  suburbs  ; 
two  men  go  down  by  the  creek,  dig  a  sardine-box  full  of  worms, 
and  go  fishing ;  a  drummer  arrives,  and  by  playing  a  game  of 


488 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


dominoes  in  the  saloon  with  the  postmaster,  and  by  voluntarily 
setting  up  the  beer  to  his  opponent  in  the  game  and  to  two  other 
property-owners,  strengthens  the  belief  of  the  inhabitants  that 
the  place  is  not  dead  yet,  and  that  it  has  a  future  before  it. 

Darkness  draws  her  curtain  over  the  scene,  and  we  retire  to 
pass  the  night  on  a  straw  mattress,  in  the  society  of  some  very 
sociable  insects.  These  are  the  most  exciting  incidents  of  a 
day  spent  in  a  Texas  village. 


PICKET  DUTY. 


489 


CHAPTER    XXXVI. 


S  the  shades  of  night  were  be- 
ginning to  fall,  we  resumed 
our  march   ['Thank  Heav- 
en ! '  murmurs  the  doctor], 
and  just  after  dark  we  came 
to  a  large  frame-house  in  the 
middle  of  the  prairie,"  said  the 
reporter,  continuing  his  story 
the  next  morning.     "  We  ap- 
proached     it    very    carefully, 
thinking    that    possibly    Yan- 
kees might  be  concealed  in  it, 
and   shoot   at   us.      Men  who 
would  leave  empty  oyster-cans 
and  whiskey-bottles  lying  around 
j        loose,  to   discourage  a  noble  foe, 
would    do   almost    any   thing   mean. 
As  soon  as  we  found  that  there  was 
no  enemy  in  the   neighborhood,  we 
took   possession   of  the   house.     There 
were  a  number  of  roads  leading  out  from 
Indianola ;    and    our    business    was    to 
guard  them,  and  see  that  the  Yankees  did 
not  pull  them  in,  and  carry  them  off  on 
their  gunboats. 

"  The  sergeant  took  us  down  to  the  fork 
of  the  road.     He  drew  us  up  in  line,  and 
said,  '  You  two  men  will  stay  right  here  until  daylight ;  then 


490  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

you  will  come  back  in  good  order  to  my  headquarters  at  the 
house.  If  you  perceive  two  or  three  Yankees,  you  will  halt 
them,  take  them  prisoner,  and  bring  them  to  headquarters.  If 
more  than  that  number  come  along,  you  will  fire  on  them,  and 
fall  back.  Keep  a  good  lookout ;  for,  if  they  find  us  here,  they 
may  try  and  cut  us  off  from  the  bridge.  Remember,  the  Con- 
federacy expects  every  man  to  lift  his  end  of  the  log.'  And  so 
saying,  the  sergeant  went  off,  and  left  us  all  alone,  within  an 
uncomfortably  short  distance  of  a  town  full  of  Yankee  soldiers, 
who  were  full  of  sardines  and  old  rye.  I  turned  to  my  com- 
panion to  hold  a  council  of  war.  Said  I,  — 

" '  Jim,  don't  you  forget  the  orders,  and  be  careful  not  to  get 
them  mixed.  If  two  or  three  men  come  out,  we  are  to  arrest 
them,  and  show  them  where  the  sergeant  is  ;  but,  if  a  whole 
brigade  comes  out,  we  must  fall  back  before  they  can  cut  us  off 
from  the  bridge.  We  must  be  careful  not  to  capture  them,  for 
we  couldn't  afford  to  feed  them.  We  are  not  to  show  them 
any  quarters,  not  even  headquarters.  We  must  be  careful  not 
to  capture  any  thing  bigger  than  a  company.  I  wonder  how 
much  longer  this  cruel  war  is  going  to  last.' ' 

"I  wonder!  "  said  the  doctor,  stretching  himself. 

"  My  comrade,  Jim  Neal,  did  not  respond.  He  was  a  very 
peculiar  sort  of  a  fellow.  He  did  not  mess  with  the  other  boys, 
but  off  by  himself,  as  far  as  possible  from  the  rest  of  the  com- 
mand. He  was  a  kind  of  military  hermit.  There  were  strange 
rumors  in  camp  about  Jim.  It  was  said  that  his  conscience 
troubled  him ;  that  in  the  early  days  of  the  war,  when  Union 
men  were  hung  on  general  principles  and  live-oak  limbs,  Jim 
Neal  had  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  massacres,  having 
murdered  a  number  of  men  with  his  own  hand,  and  that  he  was 
troubled  with  bad  dreams  in  consequence.  He  disturbed  his 
comrades  by  yelling  and  shrieking  in  the  middle  of  the  night, 
and  was  always,  on  such  occasions,  pointing  out  an  old  German 
with  his  throat  cut,  whom  nobody  but  himself  could  see.  This 
was  the  common  rumor  about  Jim  Neal,  and  no  one  ever  ex- 
pressed any  doubt  about  its  correctness.  On  this  occasion,  as 
usual,  Jim  was  not  disposed  to  be  communicative.  I  proposed 
that  he  stand  guard  one  half  the  night,  and  I  the  other ;  to  which 


"IT'S    WORSE    THAN  A    COYOTE."  491 

he  answered,  that  it  would  be  healthier  for  both  of  us  if  we  staid 
awake  all  night.  I  did  not  think  it  at  all  healthy,  and  objected. 
He  said  that  I  could  do  as  I  pleased :  he  would  stand  guard  all 
night,  because  he  was  afraid  the  Yankees  might  surprise  us. 

"  It  was  evident  to  me,  that,  in  spite  of  the  theory  that  any 
number  of  Yankees  would  run  at  the  sight  of  one  Confederate, 
Jim  was  not  inclined  to  take  that  view  of  it.  He  was  scared. 
It  was  a  clear,  starlight  night,  and  the  weather  was  quite  mild. 
Jim  was  never  quiet  an  instant.  At  one  moment  he  would  be 
on  his  horse  reconnoitring ;  the  next  he  would  be  lying  with 
his  ear  to  the  ground,  trying  to  detect  the  approach  of  an 
imaginary  foe.  As  he  went  on  guard  first,  at  about  twelve 
o'clock,  I  spread  out  my  blanket,  and  went  to  sleep  near  my 
horse.  Because  Jim  did  not  sleep,  I  did  not  propose  to  stay 
awake  to  entertain  him.  I  had  slept  about  an  hour,  when  he 
awoke  me.  He  whispered  hoarsely,  '  There  is  a  man  prowling 
around  here  !  his  intention  is  to  murder  us.  I've  seen  him  half 
a  dozen  times  :  he  is  watching  for  a  chance.' 

"  In  a  moment  I  had  my  carbine  ready,  and  was  peering  in 
the  direction  indicated.  Jim  was  glaring  like  a  terrified  animal, 
but  I  could  not  see  the  man.  Jim  laid  his  clammy  hand  on 
mine,  and,  pointing  in  another  direction,  whispered  through  his 
clinched  teeth ,  '  Now  you  see  him,  don't  you  ? ' 

"  I  fairly  strained  my  eyes,  but  could  see  nothing.  '  See  the 
horses  ! '  he  whispered.  The  horses  certainly  had  pricked  up 
their  ears,  and  were  both  looking  in  the  same  direction.  I 
said,  '  It's  only  a  coyote  they  see.'  Jim  shook  his  head  in  a 
mournful  way,  and  said,  '  It's,  worse  than  a  coyote.' 

"  Sleep  was  out  of  the  question.  Never  did  I  see  such  mor- 
tal terror.  He  told  me  he  had  seen  the  man  a  dozen  times  that 
night.  Said  he,  'They  had  no  business  putting  me  on  picket- 
duty.  The  Yankees  will  hang  me  if  they  catch  me.' 

"  Then  I  knew  what  was  the  matter  with  the  poor  wretch. 
He  was  haunted  by  some  of  his  victims.  Perhaps  it  was  the 
old  white-bearded  German,  whose  throat  Jim  had  cut,  who  was 
prowling  about.  It  was  not  very  far  from  daylight  when  he 
lay  down,  and  appeared  to  be  asleep.  He  was  worn  out,  and 
had  become  calmer,  as  the  ghostly  visitor  had  not  put  in  an 


492  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

appearance  for  almost  an  hour.  The  moon  arose,  and  threw 
her  cold  rays  on  the  sleeping  man's  face.  Whether  it  was  the 
effect  of  the  moonlight  on  his  face,  or  whether  it  was  his  con- 
science, I  do  not  know ;  but  he  soon  began  to  moan,  and  his 
features  assumed  their  usual  troubled  expression.  '  There  was 
no  need  of  cutting  his  throat,'  he  muttered  :  '  he  would  have 
died,  anyhow.'  Suddenly,  with  a  horrified  shriek,  he  started 
to  his  feet,  and,  pointing  with  quivering  fingers,  said,  '  There 
he  comes  again  !  See  his  red  beard !  It  is  blood  that  makes 
it  red.' 

" '  For  Heaven's  sake,  Jim,  if  you  see  any  thing,  shoot  it,'  I 
said. 

" '  He  is  gone  now,  but  he  will  be  back.  I've  seen  him  often 
before,  but  never  like  that,  —  never  so  close  before.  He  never 
laughed  as  he  does  to-night.  He  laughs  because  he  knows  I 
am  going  to  be  shot  or  hung.  I  told  the  captain  they  should 
not  send  me  on  picket-duty.' 

"  It  was  now  nearly  daylight.  The  houses  in  Indianola  could 
be  faintly  perceived.  Jim's  scare  was  over  :  it  fled  with  the 
darkness.  But  now  real  enemies  occupied  his  attention.  He  lay 
a  moment  with  his  ear  to  the  ground  ;  then,  springing  to  his  feet, 
he  tightened  the  girth  of  his  saddle.  '  Hurry  up ! '  he  said  :  '  they 
are  beating  the  long  roll.  The  cavalry  will  come  out  ahead  of 
us,  and  cut  us  off  from  the  bridge.  There  they  are  now ! ' 

"A  moment  more,  and  we  were  bounding  over  the  grassy 
prairie  toward  the  picket-station.  The  dark  points  on  the 
horizon  were  Federal  cavalry.  They  saw  us,  and  were  trying 
to  get  between  us  and  the  bridge.  Although,  probably,  the 
enemy  was  well  mounted,  the  chances  were  in  our  favor,  as  we 
were  nearer  the  bridge  in  a  straight  line.  Nevertheless,  the 
Yankees  gained  on  us ;  and,  as  the  bridge  appeared  in  sight, 
they  were  not  far  behind  us. 

" '  Throw  off  your  blue  overcoat,  or  some  of  our  own  men 
will  shoot  us,'  said  my  comrade.  (Some  of  us  had  Federal 
overcoats  in  those  days.)  We  dropped  our  overcoats,  clattered 
over  the  bridge,  and  were  in  the  midst  of  our  own  men." 

"  Before  you  go  any  farther,  I  want  to  know  what  became  of 
Jim  Neal,"  said  the  doctor. 


CAPT.   DICK  TAYLOR.  493 

"  Dead  !  "  responded  the  reporter.  "  He  had  a  flock  of 
sheep  after  the  war ;  herded  them  by  himself  out  on  the  Nue- 
ces.  His  mutilated  body  was  found  in  his  camp.  He  had 
been  shot  in  the  head ;  but  whether  by  his  own  hand  or  not, 
nobody  knows." 

"All  right,"  said  the  doctor.  "Now  let  the  carnage  at 
Norris's  Bridge  proceed." 

"  There  were  about  forty  of  us ;  and,  as  we  could  see  at  least 
three  thousand  infantry  and  a  battery  of  artillery  all  coming 
rapidly  in  the  direction  of  the  bridge,  it  became  very  evident 
that  something  unpleasant  was  going  to  happen.  As  for  the 
cavalry  that  chased  us,  they  went  back  in  a  hurry ;  for,  as  soon 
as  they  got  within  two  hundred  yards  of  the  bridge,  a  volley 
was  fired  at  them  which  relieved  them  of  any  doubts  as  to  our 
being  militia,  armed  with  shotguns.  Our  men  were  running  to 
and  fro,  and  everybody  was  asking  where  the  captain  was.  He 
had  gone  to  Lavacca  the  night  before,  to  buy  some  flat  plug  to- 
bacco,—  an  unaccustomed  and  much-prized  luxury  with  us  then. 

"  The  man  on  top  of  the  house  reported  the  Yankees  still 
steering  in  our  direction,  whereupon  several  suggested  an  im- 
mediate adjournment.  The  suggestion  would  have  been  acted 
upon,  had  our  captain,  Dick  Taylor,  not  appeared  on  the  scene 
at  that  critical  moment.  He  rode  a  large  horse,  and  was 
dressed  in  an  attractive  buckskin  suit,  in  the  breast-pocket  of 
which  was  exposed  a  plug  of  flat  tobacco.  We  supposed,  of 
course,  that  he  would  instruct  us  to  retreat  in  as  quick  order  as 
possible.  Imagine  our  horror  and  dismay,  when,  excitedly  tak- 
ing a  large  bite  off  the  end  of  the  tobacco  plug,  he  raised  him- 
self up  in  his  stirrups,  and  said,  'Fall  in,  boys.  The  war's 
been  going  on  for  three  years,  and  we  have  not  had  a  chance 
to  smell  gunpowder  yet.  Over  in  San  Antonio  they  say  we 
ain't  anxious  to  meet  the  enemy.  We  will  show  them  that  it's 
a  durn  lie.  I  am  not  going  to  sacrifice  life,  or  wade  in  human 
gore ;  but  we  will  stay  right  here,  and  stand  a  few  shells,  any- 
how. There  ain't  much  danger  until  they  get  the  range.' 

"  We  looked  at  each  other  with  blanched  cheeks.  To  add  to 
our  misery,  the  long  black  line,  composed  of  Federal  infantry, 
was  becoming  every  moment  a  more  prominent  feature  in  the 


494 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


landscape.  The  man  on  top  of  the  house  calmed  us  down 
somewhat  by  calling  out  that  there  were  four  guns  in  the 
battery,  and  they  were  coming  at  a  gallop. 

"  Sergeant  Jones,  who  had  seen  service  in  Virginia,  gazed  on 
the  advancing  Federals,  and  said,  '  This    begins   to  look  like 


CAPT.    DICK    TAYLOR. 


business.  In  about  ten  minutes  half  of  us  will  be  lying  about 
promiscuously  without  heads  or  legs.  Some  of  us  never  will 
be  found  again.  Up  in  Virginia  I  saw  a  shell  from  a  battery, 
just  like  that  one  that's  coming,  that  burst  inside  of  a  fellow, 
and  we  never  did  find  any  thing  of  him  but  a  few  odds  and 
ends  up  in  the  top  of  a  tree.' 


THE    CARNAGE  AT  N ORRIS'S  BRIDGE.         495 

"  We  knew  the  worst  now,  and  began  to  be  reconciled  to  the 
inevitable.  Our  fool-captain  was  as  scared  as  any  of  us,  but 
he  tried  to  hide  it.  He  was  prancing  up  and  down,  in  front  of 
us,  behind  us,  and  amongst  us ;  and  every  once  in  a  while  he 
would  pull  out  that  plug  of  flat  tobacco,  and  rend  it  with  his 
teeth  like  a  mule  at  a  bundle  of  fodder.  He  kept  biting  off 
tobacco  and  giving  commands  at  the  same  time.  '  Don't  leave, 
boys,'  he  said.  (Some  of  them  were  getting  on  their  horses.) 
'  Don't  leave  until  we  have  had  a  shot,  anyhow.  We  cannot 
expect  to  defeat  the  enemy,  but  we  can  let  'em  shell  us  a  while. 
I'll  shoot  down  the  first  man  who  starts  to  run  before  I  do.' 

"  Then  he  struggled  with  a  fresh  bite  of  tobacco ;  and,  wiping 
the  enthusiasm  off  his  brow  with  his  sleeve,  he  continued, 
'  The  war  has  been  going  on  for  three  years,  and  we  haven't 
even  a  wooden  leg  amongst  us  to  prove  it  by.  We've  got  to 
stand  some  shelling,  so  that  they  will  quit  making  fun  of  us  in 
San  Antonio.' 

" '  Come  down  off  that  horse ! '  he  bawled  out,  as  a  young 
Israelite  from  Austin  tried  to  mount." 

"  Of  a  truth,  the  battle  now  begins  to  rage,"  said  the  doctor. 

"  We  were  all  stationed  behind  a  fence,  which  was  not  high 
or  thick  enough  for  such  an  emergency.  On  one  side  of  me 
was  Sergeant  Jones,  the  Virginia  veteran,  while  on  the  other 
was  Sam  McWhorter.  The  latter  was  a  typical  cowboy.  He 
was  red-headed,  ignorant,  freckled,  and  good-natured.  He  did 
not  seem  to  know  what  fear  was,  as  he  was  fully  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  popular  belief  that  one  Confederate  could  chase 
a  regiment  of  Yankees.  He  had  heard  so  much  about  this, 
that  he  implicitly  believed  it.  Sam  could  not  read  or  write, 
but  he  had  a  mouth  large  enough  to  make  up  for  all  physical 
and  educational  deficiency.  He  stood  there  behind  the  cedar 
rail-fence,  grinning,  and  fairly  aching  to  receive  the  order  to 
chase  the  Yankees  back.  He  said  he  wondered  they  were  not 
afraid  to  come  so  close. 

"  All  at  once  a  battery  dashed  up  at  full  gallop,  on  a  slight 
elevation  four  hundred  yards  distant,  and  wheeled  around  to 
bring  the  guns  to  bear  on  us.  Just  then  Sam  McWhorter 
diverted  my  thoughts  from  the  enemy  and  from  Capt.  Dick 


496 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


Taylor,  who  continued  to  prance  about,  and  exhort  his  soldiers 
to  have  patience.  Sam  saw  the  horses  turn  to  bring  the  guns 
to  bear  on  us.  When  he  noticed  the  movement,  he  thought 
that  the  Yankees  had  got  frightened,  and  were  going  back  to 
Indianola ;  and  he  could  not  repress  his  exultant  emotions.  As 

soon  as  he  saw  the 
horses  turn,  he  took 
off  his  hat,  and  began 
to  cheer  vociferous- 
ly, '  Hurrah  for  the 
Southern  Confedera- 
cy !  Hurrah  for  Jeff 
Davis  ! '  and  catching 
a  glimpse  of  our  gal- 
lant captain,  who  was 
now  sitting  boldly  on 
his  horse,  with  his 
eyes  shut,  either  say- 
ing his  prayers  or 
waiting  for  some- 
thing to  burst,  Sam 
whooped  once  more, 
'  Hurrah  for  Capt. 
Dick  Taylor!  Hur- 
rah for '  — 

"  I  had  my  eye  riv- 
eted on  the  enemy's 
guns.  They  were  now 
very  much  depressed, 
but  not  more  than  I 
was.  Just  as  Sam  was 
swinging  his  hat,  and 

stretching  his  mouth  to  its  utmost  capacity,  there  was  a  puff  of 
smoke  in  front  of  the  battery,  and  a  shell  went  screaming,  like 
a  demon  with  a  cold  in  his  head,  about  four  feet  above  Sam's 
red  head.  He  was  not  looking  at  the  battery  :  he  thought  it 
was  on  its  way  back  to  Indianola.  He  had  his  mouth  so  much 
expanded,  encouraging  some  great  southern  leader  with  his 


'HURRAH    FOR    THE    SOUTHERN    CONFEDERACY!' 


SHELLING. 


497 


cheers,  that  his  eyes  were  shut  when  the  shell  howled  past  him. 
He  suddenly  opened  his  eyes,  and  gave  a  side-glance  at  me,  so 
mournfully  ludicrous  that  it  made  me  laugh  in  spite  of  the 
seriousness  of  the  situation.  The  red  bristles  on  his  head 
were  standing  straight  up  on  end.  His  mouth  was  shut  now ; 
while  his  eyes,  which  rolled  about  in  an  alarming  manner,  were 
protruding  like  door-knobs.  He  never  afterwards  got  back  his 
natural  expression.  The  look  of  terror  was  frozen  into  his 
features.  He  was  never  able  to  part  his  hair  again. 

"There  was  -not  much  time,  however,  to  enjoy  the  scene. 
Two  more  puffs  of  smoke,  a  cloud  of  dust  appeared  in  the 
rear,  and  simultaneously  about  twenty  feet  of  fence  was 
spread  over  the  adjacent  country.  The  sergeant  who  had 
seen  service  in  Virginia  rested  his  rifle  on  the  fence,  and  fired. 
The  horse  of  the  only  mounted  man  about  the  battery  reared, 
and  fell  over  backwards.  It  was  a  four-hundred-yard  shot  with 
a  musket,  —  English  Crown  and  Tower  brand  on  it.  We  after- 
wards learned  that  the  officer  who  rode  the  horse  was  shot 
through  the  thigh,  and  died  in  a  few  hours. 

"  Capt.  Dick  shouted,  '  That  will  do,  durn  you !  Get  up  and 
git,  now.'  There  was  really  no  occasion  for  any  official  orders 
on  this  subject,  for  half  the  men  were  already  scampering  over 
the  prairie.  Never  was  an  order  on  the  battlefield  more  cheer- 
fully obeyed.  There  was  mounting  in  hot  haste,  for  the  two 
guns  kept  up  a  steady  firing.  By  this  time  the  infantry  were 
within  a  few  hundred  yards,  and  the  bullets  of  the  skirmishers 
were  assisting  in  making  us  wish  the  war  was  over.  We 
adopted  the  Cossack  plan  of  bewildering  the  enemy ;  that  is, 
we  spread  out  suddenly  in  different  directions.  It  is  rather  a 
difficult  thing  to  hit  a  man  two  or  three  miles  off  on  the  prairie. 
They  would  have  got  some  of  us  if  we  had  not  scattered.  For- 
tunately for  us,  there  was  a  herd  of  cows  on  a  distant  hill,  that 
the  Yankees  mistook  for  part  of  our  command.  They  trained 
two  of  the  guns  on  the  cattle  while  we  were  scattering.  The 
cows,  not  having  any  more  sense  than  we  had,  waited  to  be 
shelled.  They  staid  there  until  the  gunners  got  the  range. 
We  afterwards  learned  that  the  carnage  was  dreadful :  tender- 
loin steaks  and  soup-bones  were  found  scattered  over  the 
32 


498  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

country  for  miles.  We  rejoiced  that  none  of  us  were  hurt : 
we  did  not  wish  to  add  to  the  bitterness  of  the  fratricidal 
struggle. 

"The  shells  continued  to  go  over  us  as  we  ran.  I  rode 
alongside  a  lieutenant,  who  was  urging  his  horse  onward  by 
patting  it  behind  with  his  sabre.  We  were  then  three  miles 
from  the  enemy.  I  asked  him  if  the  day  was  hot  enough  for 
him.  He  shook  his  sabre  at  me,  and  said,  'Disperse,  you 
damned  fool !  Keep  away  from  me.  Don't  you  know  if  we 
mass  our  troops  the  enemy  will  concentrate  his  artillery-fire  on 
us  ?  Deploy  to  the  right,  the  farther  the  better.' 

"We  afterwards  rallied  on  a  creek  six  miles  farther  back, 
and  made  it  our  future  base  of  operations." 

"  Did  you  surfer  any  loss  at  all  ? "  inquired  the  doctor. 

"  Yes.  One  man  belonging  to  Company  C  had  a  large  cat- 
fish staked  out  in  the  bayou.  He  lost  it,  owing  to  the  rapid 
advance  of  the  enemy.  But  nobody  was  killed  or  wounded, 
owing  to  the  rapidity  with  which  we  carried  out  the  Cossack 
tactics.  When  Gen.  Warren  came  over  the  bridge  at  the  head 
of  his  victorious  army,  after  we  had  fallen  back,  he  made  in- 
quiry as  to  what  troops  we  were.  He  said  we  were  either  very 
brave  men,  or  the  grandest  fools  in  the  whole  western  hemi- 
sphere. We  felt  very  much  complimented  when  we  heard  this. 
The  idea  of  forty  men  trying  to  hold  a  bridge  against  three 
thousand  infantry  and  a  battery  of  artillery  seemed  to  him  as 
something  out  of  the  usual  order  of  things." 

"  I  hope,  after  that,  the  San  Antonio  papers  quit  insinuating 
that  you  were  not  anxious  to  prolong  the  war,"  remarked  the 
doctor. 

"  Yes  :  Capt.  Dick  Taylor  and  his  men  were  fully  vindicated. 
There  was  a  long  account  of  the  battle  in  the  San  Antonio 
'Herald,'  under  the  head  of  'Desperate  Engagement.'  It 
went  on  to  say  that  an  army  of  five  thousand  hirelings,  with  a 
park  of  artillery,  was  kept  in  check  for  hours  by  Capt.  Dick 
Taylor  and  twenty  men,  at  Norris's  Bridge,  and  that  the  loss  in- 
flicted on  the  Federals  was  heavy.  It  related  how  vast  masses 
of  troops  were  hurled  in  vain  on  the  little  band  of  heroes. 
It  spoke  of  how  Capt.  Taylor  and  his  men  fell  back  slowly, 


BAD    OLD  MEN.  499 

like  lions  at  bay,  disputing  every  half-inch  of  ground  with  the 
overwhelming  foe,  and  made  comparisons  in  which  Horatio 
and  the  brave  days  of  old  were  alluded  to.  It  stated  that  Capt. 
Dick  Taylor  was  conspicuous  for  his  bravery  and  a  new  buck- 
skin jacket  that  he  wore,  both  of  which  caused  the  concentra- 
tion of  the  artillery-fire  on  his  person,  twenty-seven  shells 
being  hurled  at  him  in  quick  succession.  It  concluded  by  say- 
ing, '  The  spirit  shown  by  our  troops  must  convince  the  authori- 
ties at  Washington  of  the  utter  hopelessness  of  subjugating  a 
proud  and  haughty  people.'  " 

"  What  could  possibly  have  caused  the  people  of  San  Anto- 
nio, in  the  first  place,  to  suspect  that  you  were  not  all  ready  to 
die  for  the  Confederacy  ? "  asked  the  doctor. 

"  I'll  tell  you  how  that  was.  The  country  is  perfectly  flat 
about  Indianola.  You  can  see  a  man  two  or  three  miles  off. 
There  is  frequently  a  mirage  down  there,  when  a  pond  looks 
like  a  house  on  fire,  and  three  or  four  men  on  horseback  like 
a  circus-pageant.  A  cow  standing  under  a  tree  resembles  a 
group  of  pre-Adamic  monsters  with  their  tails  curled  up  over 
their  backs.  One  morning  we  saw  the  whole  town  of  Lavacca, 
six  miles  distant,  hanging  upside  down  in  the  sky.  Sometimes 
these  optical  illusions  did  not  inspire  us  with  confidence.  Once 
we  ran  before  a  mirage  for  several  hours.  It  was  only  a  cabal- 
lado  of  horses  grazing  on  the  prairie,  and  distorted  by  atmos- 
pheric influences.  That  story  got  to  San  Antonio. 

"Again,  we  had  to  do  picket-duty  in  squads  of  five  or  six; 
and  we  used  to  make  signals  to  each  other  by  riding  off  to  one 
side,  and  raising  our  hands.  At  the  same  time,  doing  picket- 
duty,  there  was  a  company  of  old  flop-ears.  By  that  term  is 
meant  sinful  old  men,  who  were  too  old  to  be  conscripted,  but 
who  went  into  the  war,  anyhow.  They  were  old  Texas  vet- 
erans, who  could  not  be  kept  at  home  when  there  was  a  fight 
or  a  barbecue  unless  you  sawed  off  their  legs.  They  were 
destroying  the  government  of  the  United  States  on  their  own 
responsibility.  Those  bad  old  men,  who  ought  to  have  been 
at  home  studying  their  Bibles,  were  continually  prowling  about 
the  fortifications  with  shotguns,  watching  for  Yankees,  with 
the  intention  of  doing  them  serious  bodily  injury.  Whenever 


500 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


a  party  of  Yankees  came  out  to  get  fresh  beef,  these  vicious 
old  warriors  would  be  very  apt  to  make  it  unpleasant  for  them. 
As  these  irregular  troops  did  not  know  our  signals  on  the 
prairies,  the  consequence  was,  we  were  never  sure,  when  we 
saw  them  at  a  distance,  whether  they  were  Federals  or  not. 
So  we  gave  them  the  benefit  of  the  doubt,  and  got  out  of  their 
way.  They  usually  outnumbered  us,  too,  and  would  pursue  us 


BAD    OLD     MEN. 


across  the  plains  into  camp. 
When  they  found  out  that 
they  were  chasing  Confed- 
erate soldiers,  they  would 
make  humble  apologies  for 
the  mistake,  saying  that  we 
ran  like  Yankees  ;  but  you 
could  see  that  the  old  sin- 
ners knew  all  the  time  that  we  were  not  Yankees.  Why,  a  lot 
of  those  degraded  mummies  chased  a  detachment  of  men  from 
Company  A,  the  crack  company,  thirty-seven  miles  one  day, 
they  thinking  we  were  Yankees,  and  we  thinking  the  same  of 
them.  It  took  us  four  days  to  get  back,  on  our  exhausted  war- 
steeds.  I  know  all  about  it,  for  I  was  one  of  the  sufferers.  I 
could  not  walk  for  a  whole  week  afterwards.  Every  day, 
almost,  those  miserable  dolts  were  chasing  our  men.  The 
news  of  their  absurd  antics  got  into  the  San  Antonio  papers ; 


THE  POPULAR    CAPTAIN.  501 

and  as  the  editors  had  a  spite  at  everybody  who  was  in  the 
tented  field,  while  they  were  themselves  safe  from  Federal  shot 
and  shell,  invidious  editorial  remarks  were  made.  The  captain 
was  complimented  by  receiving  marked  copies  of  the  paper 
containing  these  calumnies  ;  and,  being  naturally  of  a  proud 
nature,  he  chafed  under  them.  So  you  see,  when  the  Federal 
army  hove  in  sight,  two  thousand  strong,  with  a  battery,  our 
captain  determined  to  refute  the  vile  slanders  by  acting  as  if  he 
were  anxious  for  us  to  lay  down  our  lives  for  the  cause,  relying 
on  the  well-known  fact,  that  the  gunner  has  to  miss  several 
times  before  he  can  get  the  range.  He  did  not  like  it  himself, 
however,  and  said  confidentially  afterwards  that  he  had  no  idea 
of  the  risk  he  was  taking,  and  that,  if  getting  away  from  a 
battery  was  connected  with  so  much  danger,  he  hoped  he  would 
never  be  called  on  to  get  away  with  a  battery.  We  sustained 
him  in  this  position  to  a  man.  He  became  very  popular  after- 
wards. We  would  have  gone  through  fire  and  water  for  him  if 
he  had  required  it,  but  it  was  a  comfort  to  think  that  he  would 
never  make  any  such  demand." 
The  doctor  was  asleep. 


502 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    XXXVII. 


were  now  in  what  is  called  the 
Indian  country  ;  and  we  occasion- 
ally met  a  squad  of  rangers  scout- 
ing after  the  Indians,  but  we  did 
not  meet  any  Indians. 

Of  the  numerous  Indian  tribes 
that  once  inhabited  Texas,  some 
have   become   extinct,   or   have 
been    incorporated   with    other 
tribes,  and  have  thus  lost  their 
identity.     The  Wacoes,  for  in- 
stance, once  a  leading  tribe,  are 
not    heard    of    now.      All    the 
friendly  Indians,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  miserable  specimens 
scattered  along  the  Trinity  River, 
have   entirely  disappeared  —  civilized 
and    reconstructed  —  off   the   face   of 
the  earth.    The  Muscogees,  Alabamas, 
6     and    Coashattas,    said   to    have    been 
branches  of  the  great  Creek  nation,  were 
the  tribes  known  as  "friendly"   Indians 
in  Texas  fifty  years  ago. 

A  friendly  Indian  is  one  who  does  not  make 
a  business  of  scalping  the  superior  race ;  one 
who  only  kills  his  white  benefactors  at  such  odd 
times  as  he  can  safely  and  conveniently  lay  the 
blame  on  some  one  else.     A  friendly  Indian  will 
live  five  to  ten  years  on  the  best  of  terms  with  his  neighbors ; 


BIG-FOOT  WALLACE. 


503 


that  is,  he  will  borrow  all  the  cornmeal  he  needs,  steal  what 
pork  he  requires,  and  beg  enough  firewater  to  keep  him  mellow. 
Then,  when  he  has  sufficiently  demonstrated  his  friendly  dis- 
position, he  will  select  a  favorable  opportunity,  and,  assisted  by 
his  relatives,  also  amiable  Indians,  will  murder  and  outrage  all 
the  whites  in  the  settlement.  Then  he  disappears,  taking  with 
him  the  settlers'  horses,  and  becomes  a  bad  Indian  for  a  time, 
keeping  away  from  the  busy  haunts  of  men  until  his  gnawing 
conscience  (which  is  situated  in  his  stomach)  forces  him  to  go 
to  the  reserva- 
tion and  draw 
rations.  There  a 
paternal  govern- 
ment,  through 
its  pious  agents, 
pardons  all  of- 
fences, blesses 
him,  and  re- 
wards him  for 
his  friendly  dis- 
position with  a 
blanket  and  a 
repeating  -  rifle. 
Thus  does  the 
poor,  untutored 
savage,  the  last 
of  a  doomed  and 

dying  race,  appeal  to  the  Eastern  humanitarian,  who  has  never 
had  the  opportunity  of  becoming  personally  acquainted  with  his 
many  virtues. 

We  camped  one  night  with  Big-Foot  Wallace,  the  noted 
scout  and  Indian  fighter.  After  listening  for  hours  to  his  tales 
of  frontier  life,  adventures  with  Indians,  etc.,  I  asked  him  if 
he  had  ever  known  any  really  good  Indians,  —  honest,  truthful 
Indians,  who  paid  one  hundred  cents  on  the  dollar  to  those  who 
believed  in  their  nobility  of  character. 

"Young  man,"  replied  he,  "I  never  trust  no  Injun  unless  he 
is  at  the  business  end  of  this  'ere  iron,"— and  he  tapped  signifi- 


i 


BIG-FOOT    WALLACE. 


504  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

cantly  the  stock  of  his  long  Kentucky  rifle,  where  forty-seven 
notches  could  be  counted;  "for  snakes  is  snakes,  and  Injuns 
is  Injuns." 

Whenever  a  superior  race  sends  out  zealous  missionaries  to 
civilize  and  christianize  the  heathen,  the  latter  should  lose  no 
time  in  selling  out  and  moving  away.  If  the  simple-minded 
heathen  do  not  leave  before  the  arrival  of  the  blessings  with 
which  they  are  threatened,  all  that  is  left  for  them  to  do  is  to 
make  their  wills.  There  are  usually  some  obstinate  unbeliev- 
ers, who  manage  to  prolong  their  existence  and  that  of  their 
race  by  fleeing  to  the  mountains.  The  good,  docile  native, 
who  submitted  to  the  priests,  owing  to  the  improved  fire-arms 
of  the  soldiers  who  accompanied  the  missionaries,  is  no  longer 
to  be  found  about  his  favorite  haunts.  His  descendants  are 
equally  scarce.  The  Indios  redncidos  only  exist  in  the  dim 
and  misty  legends  of  the  past.  They  twang  a  harp  in  a  land 
that  is  fairer  than  this.  But  the  Indian  who  objected  to  being 
reduced,  who  did  not  want  to  go  to  heaven  on  the  terms  offered 
by  the  Spanish  monks,  has  descendants  still  living  who  twang 
a  lively  bow  in  the  frontier  counties  of  Western  Texas,  even 
unto  this  day,  and  who  often  revisit  the  scenes  where  their 
ancestors  once  were  in  affluent  circumstances,  owned  nearly 
all  the  real  estate,  and  objected  to  having  any  but  their  own 
language  taught  in  the  public  schools.  Once  in  a  while  they 
develop  a  bloodthirsty  spirit  that  would  excite  the  admiration 
of  the  old  Spaniards,  who,  if  they  could  only  revisit  the  glimpses 
of  the  moon,  would  be  stimulated  to  escape  back  to  their  graves 
at  a  high  rate  of  speed. 

The  wild  Indian,  although  reduced  in  number,  is  in  all  other 
respects  as  good  as  new.  He  has,  on  several  occasions,  very 
nearly  succeeded  in  bringing  on  a  war  between  the  United 
States  and  Mexico  ;  and  he  keeps  a  large  frontier  in  a  constant 
state  of  uncertainty  as  to  whom  the  stock  and  scalps  of  the 
hardy  frontiersmen  really  belong.  It  very  frequently  happens, 
that  while  the  Texas  frontiersman  is  the  de  jure  owner  of  his 
scalp,  horses,  etc.,  the  Indian  from  the  other  side  of  the  Rio 
Grande  is  the  owner  de  facto.  . 

The  past  history  of  the  western  frontier  is  nothing  more  nor 


COMMERCIAL  RELATIONS.  505 

less  than  the  history  of  one  unending  Indian  war.  In  former 
days  the  inhabitants  of  San  Antonio  were  literally  besieged  by 
hostile  Indians.  For  many  years  past,  the  Indians  have  been 
unable  to  maintain  themselves  in  Texas.  They  have  their 
places  of  business  over  in  Mexico,  in  the  Santa  Rosa  Moun- 
tains, but  send  out  travelling-agents  to  transact  business  with 
the  Texans.  The  Indian  drummers  travel  at  night,  visiting 
their  customers  during  every  full  moon. 

When  Gen.  Ord  was  appointed  commander  of  the  department 
of  Texas,  in  1874,  he  seriously  interfered  with  the  commercial  re- 
lations previously  existing  between  the  Indians  and  the  Texans. 

The  raiders  from  Mexico  into  Texas,  whose  exploits  are 
known  to  all  who  can  borrow  a  newspaper,  are,  for  the  most 
part,  Indians  of  the  Kickapoo,  Mescalero,  and  Lipan  tribes, 
with  a  sprinkling  of  the  more  adventurous  of  the  Mexicans, 
who  unite  the  natural  predisposition  to  steal  horses  with  the 
physical  activity  to  do  so.  They  usually  enter  Texas  near 
the  mouth  of  Devil's  River,  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  west 
of  San  Antonio. 

The  stealing  of  horses  has,  of  late  years,  been  principally 
confined  to  that  portion  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  is  the  chief 
industry  of  the  country.  The  Indians  and  Mexicans  form 
joint-stock  companies  for  the  transfer  of  live-stock  from  Texas 
to  Mexico.  The  Mexicans  furnish  the  whiskey,  ammunition, 
jerked  beef,  and  other  supplies  necessary  for  the  expedition. 
The  Indians  steal  the  horses,  and  bring  them  to  the  Mexican 
market.  The  result  of  these  commercial  ventures,  when  the 
partners  balance  up  and  divide  the  profits,  is,  that  the  Indians 
have  the  experience,  and  the  Mexicans  have  the  horses.  When 
brought  to  account  for  having  stolen  horses  in  their  possession, 
the  Mexicans  magnanimously  lay  all  the  blame  on  their  wicked 
partners,  the  Indians.  If  the  Indians  ever  soar  up  to  such  a 
degree  of  civilization  that  they  can  publish  a  card,  they,  too, 
will  have  something  to  say  on  the  subject  of  wicked  partners. 
There  is  no  doubt  about  the  complicity  of  the  leading  Mexi- 
cans of  some  of  the  frontier  towns  ;  for,  when  a  raiding  band  is 
completely  wiped  out  of  existence  by  the  exasperated  Texans, 
the  principal  stores  in  the  town  are  closed  up  on  a  twenty-cent- 


506  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

on-the-dollar  basis,  and  the  various  local  societies  publish  long 
resolutions  about  "  it  having  pleased  the  all-wise  Providence  to 
remove  hence  our  brother,  while  absent  on  a  trip  for  the  benefit 
of  his  health." 

When  it  comes  to  dividing  out  the  responsibility  for  raids 
into  Texas,  it  is  unjust  to  deprive  the  Mexican  of  his  full  share. 
The  home  of  the  Indian,  as  the  term  is  applicable  to  the  great 
original,  or  rather  aboriginal  tramp,  is  in  the  midst  of  the 
mountains  of  that  vast  unexplored  territory  south  of  the  mouth 
of  Devil's  River  in  Mexico.  It  is  in  this  rugged  country  that 
the  Indian,  after  first  catching  his  horses,  conceals  them  and 
himself  from  the  sight  of  the  Texas  rangers.  The  Indians  do 
not  live  here  permanently.  They  sometimes  leave  the  moun- 
tain fastnesses,  and  camp  near  the  Mexican  towns ;  but  of  late 
years  they  have  been  regarded  as  dangerous  neighbors.  When 
the  Indian  cannot  find  a  white  man  to  rob  and  murder,  he  is 
satisfied,  on  the  half-a-loaf  principle,  with  a  Mexican.  If,  how- 
ever, the  Mexican  refuses  to  be  murdered,  the  Indians  are 
thrown  on  their  own  resources,  and  perform  the  kindly  offices 
of  murdering  each  other. 

Until  the  trade  in  stealing  Texas  stock  was  broken  up,  the 
friendship  between  the  Indians  and  Mexicans  was  like  unto 
that  of  Jonathan  and  Pythias.  There  exists  another  reason 
why,  for  several  years  past,  the  Indians  have  been  disagreeable 
neighbors.  Gen.  Mackenzie,  of  the  United-States  army,  made 
several  trips  across  the  Rio  Grande  after  Indian  raiders ;  and 
the  result  was  such  that  the  Mexicans  perceived  that  the 
Indians  were  unprofitable  neighbors  to  have  just  at  the  time 
when  Mackenzie  dropped  in  to  see  them.  As  there  was  no 
telling  when  he  might  not  make  another  pastoral  call,  the  Mexi- 
cans preferred  that  the  Indians  go  off  some  distance  by  them- 
selves to  avoid  misunderstandings.  It  was  the  old  story  about 
poor  Tray  being  found  in  bad  company  ;  although  in  this  in- 
stance it  would  be  difficult  to  say  which  was  Tray,  and  which 
the  bad  company. 

The  Kickapoos  and  Lipans  are  absolutely  unhampered  with 
prejudice  as  to  color,  and  have  frequently  shown  a  perfect  will- 
ingness to  scalp  a  Mexican  on  terms  of  social  equality. 


FALLING  BACK,  507 

The  country  where  the  Indians  recuperate,  after  their  raids 
into  Texas,  is  very  much  like  certain  portions  of  Vermont, 
where  the  owners  of  the  choice  lands  are  compelled  by  law  to 
fence  them  in  to  prevent  cattle  from  straying  on  them  and 
starving  to  death.  This  vast  area  of  ten  thousand  square  miles 
is  marked  on  all  maps  of  Mexico  as  terra  desconocido.  Even 
the  elaborate  maps  prepared  by  the  Austrian  and  French  engi- 
neers during  the  days  of  the  ill-starred  empire  contain  a  blank 
space  marked  "unexplored." 

To  properly  appreciate  and  understand  the  situation  on  the 
frontier,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  horses  and  cattle  are 
extremely  scarce  in  Mexico.  The  great  national  pastime  and 
recreation  of  the  Mexicans  have  been  ab  initio  revolutions. 
Revolutions  are  very  severe  on  horses.  Solomon  mentions  that 
a  horse  is  prepared  for  safety ;  and,  as  safety  is  the  first  thing 
that  enters  the  mind  of  the  Mexican  when  a  revolutionary  fight 
begins,  it  will  be  seen  at  once  that  a  horse  is  just  the  thing  to 
fall  back  on.  "  Falling  back  "  is  the  most  important  strategic 
movement  practised  by  revolutionary  Mexicans  :  hence  there  is 
a  great  deal  of  wear  and  tear  in  horseflesh.  When  the  "lurid 
glare  of  revolution  "  overspreads  the  land,  thousands  of  horses 
are  ridden  to  death  by  the  different  revolutionary  bands  while 
making  their  escape  from  each  other. 

This  violent  horseback-exercise  gives  tone  to*the  stomach ; 
and  the  revolutionist,  after  riding  hurriedly  ten  or  twenty  miles 
to  secure  a  strong,  strategic  position  in  the  rear,  always  has  a 
ravenous  appetite,  and  the  digestive  ability  of  an  anaconda. 

It  would  seem  as  if  the  revolutionary  portion  of  the  people 
get  up  popular  upheavals  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  have  an 
excuse  to  ride  other  people's  horses,  and  feed  on  strange  beef. 

The  Mexican  must  have  a  pony  to  prance  on.  What  is  a 
caballero  on  foot  but  a  palpable  absurdity  ?  Right  across  the 
shallow  Rio  Grande  are  thousands  of  horses  belonging  to  the 
heretic  Gringo  tribes,  to  steal  from  whom  is  an  act  patriotic, 
and  pleasing  in  the  sight  of  high  Heaven.  There  are  also  herds 
of  fat  cattle,  suggestive  of  juicy  steaks,  all  grazing  on  the  rich 
soil  of  Texas,  which  properly  belonged  to  Mexico,  anyhow. 

Between  the  Mexican  receiver  and  the  Indian   thief,  there 


508  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

are  not  those  harmonious  relations  that  are  supposed  to  exist 
among  people  of  their  class  and  profession.  The  merchants 
flatter  themselves,  that  as  they  furnish  the  social  status,  so  to 
speak,  of  the  firm  of  Hidalgo,  Lo,  &  Co.,  they  ought  to  be 
entitled  to  the  lion's  share  of  the  profits.  The  Indians,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  of  the  opinion  that  they  ought  to  have  most 
of  the  proceeds  of  their  toil.  They  have  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
and  annoyance  in  pursuing  their  calling,  occasioned  by  the  heart- 
less brutality  and  unaccommodating  disposition  of  the  Texas 
stock-raisers. 

Although  the  Texans  know  when  to  expect  the  Indian  tra- 
ders,— that  is,  at  the  full  of  the  moon, — yet  they  do  not  keep  up 
their  stock  in  the  pen,  in  order  to  facilitate  matters,  and  pre- 
serve fraternal  relations  with  Mexico.  On  the  contrary,  some 
of  the  Texans  go  so  far  as  to  drive  off  their  stock  to  points 
where  the  Indians  are  put  to  unnecessary  pains  in  finding  them. 
This  unreasonable  conduct  of  the  Texas  frontiersmen  gives  the 
Indians  much  extra  trouble,  which  they  think  ought  to  be  taken 
into  consideration  by  the  Mexican  merchant  in  settlement. 

Again :  utterly  unmindful  of  consequences,  the  Texans  have 
sometimes  pursued  Lo  ;  and  he,  like  the  chief  of  Ulva's  Isle 
when  he  was  on  a  similar  expedition  after  Lord  Ullin's  daugh- 
ter, had  to  be  very  expeditious  :  for  horsemen  hard  behind  him 
rode  ;  and,  if  they  caught  up  with  him  before  he  crossed  the  Rio 
Grande,  —  that  dark  and  stormy  water,  —  the  chances  were  that 
his  blood  would  stain  the  heather. 

Lo  wanted  these  risks  paid  for,  but  the  Mexican  merchant 
esteemed  them  lightly. 

Strikes  were  of  frequent  occurrence.  Then  the  Mexican 
merchants  undertook  to  supply  the  places  of  the  striking  In- 
dians by  hiring  Mexican  thieves.  But  these  were  not  skilled 
artisans,  like  the  Indians.  They  were  good  enough  at  reaching 
through  a  window  with  a  long  pole,  and  lifting  out  a  pair  of  trou- 
sers ;  but  when  it  came  to  the  higher  branches  of  the  profession, 
such  as  riding  a  thousand  miles  in  ten  days,  stealing  two  hun- 
dred head  of  horses,  killing  and  scalping  twenty  or  thirty 
persons,  and  getting  back  in  safety,  the  new  hands  were  not 
equal  to  the  emergency. 


ORDERS  IN  ADVANCE. 


509 


To  raid  into  Texas  from  Mexico,  steal  the  number  of  horses 
requisite  to  make  the  adventure  a  success  from  a  pecuniary 
point  of  view,  and  return  to  Mexico  in  advance  of  the  pursuing 
Texas  rangers,  is  an  undertaking  of  considerable  magnitude. 
It  demands  several  weeks  of  incessant  hard  riding  and  expo- 


A    MOONLIGHT    EXCURSION    FROM    MEXICO. 


sure  to  the  sun.     It  is  also  fraught  with  much  danger.     Occa- 
sionally the  Texas  stockman  happens  to  be  at  home  wher 
raider  calls,  and  the  consequences  are  unpleasant  to  c 
plate      The  tough,  wiry  Kickapoos  and  Lipans,  by  changm 
horses, -which   they  have  permitted  the  Texas  stockmen  to 
furnish  for  the  occasion,  —  will  get  over  an  incredible  quantity 


510  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

of  ground  in  a  short  time,  and  drive  a  large  herd  of  horses 
before  them,  shooting  down  those  that  give  out.  When  over- 
taken they  will  fight  to  the  death,  with  the  fury  of  ancient 
crusaders ;  but  they  are  seldom  overtaken,  for  the  reason  that 
they  always  get  a  good  start  before  the  settlers  in  the  thinly 
populated  frontier  counties  can  get  together.  Their  views  as 
to  the  right  of  property  may  be  best  described  as,  — 

"The  simple  plan 

That  they  should  take  who  have  the  power, 
And  they  should  keep  who  can." 

On  the  eastern  border  of  the  unexplored  region  already 
described  are  a  number  of  small  Mexican  towns,  —  San  Fer- 
nando, Santa  Rosa,  and  Saragossa.  The  only  legitimate  busi- 
ness or  trade  carried  on  in  these  towns — which  otherwise  are 
too  dull  to  be  called  cemeteries  —  is  the  traffic  in  stock  stolen 
from  Texas.  The  Indians  formerly  resided  in  the  suburbs  of 
these  towns ;  but  after  Gen.  Mackenzie  gave  them  that  sur- 
prise-party at  Pamolina,  killing  some,  and  taking  a  large  number 
prisoners,  they  removed  to  the  mountains.  There  are,  in  all, 
about  five  or  six  hundred  families  who  thus  prefer  the  more  salu- 
brious atmosphere  of  the  mountains,  where  the  United-States 
cavalry  cannot  penetrate.  These  aborigines  do  all  their  trad- 
ing, procure  their  supplies,  and  get  drunk,  at  the  little  towns 
referred  to. 

When  the  Indian  settles  with  the  Mexican,  on  his  return  from 
a  raid,  he  is  generously  allowed  to  invest  his  capital  in  the  Mexi- 
can merchant's  private  monte-bank. 

So  great  is  the  demand  for  horses  in  Mexico,  that  these  fron- 
tier merchants  have  orders  six  months  in  advance.  A  rich 
official  in  some  town  of  the  interior  will  order  a  pair  of  Ameri- 
can carriage-horses.  Some  fast  young  man  in  the  city  of  Mon- 
terey will  send  in  his  order  for  a  riding-horse ;  while  another 
will  describe  the  color  of  horse  he  wants,  and  even  insist  on  the 
animal  being  of  the  brand  of  some  well-known  Texan,  who  is 
celebrated  for  keeping  fine  stock.  As  an  evidence  of  the  open 
and  shameless  way  that  this  traffic  is  carried  on,  I  quote  the 
following  trade-circular  from  the  house  of  Pendejo  &  Sinvergu- 
enzo,  of  Santa  Rosa  :  — 


A  BUSINESS-CARD.  511 


l 


FINE   IMPORTED   STOCK. 

The  undersigned,  having  engaged  the  professional  services  of  Asarte, 
the  celebrated  Lipan  horse-merchant,  who  has  had  more  experience  in 
selecting  and  importing  fine  stock  from  Texas  than  any  other  stockman 
on  the  frontier,  are  now  in  a  condition  to  supply  their  friends  with  all 
classes  of  horses.  Fresh  consignments  received  every  full  moon.  The 
most  improved  breed  from  the  ranches  of  leading  Texas  stock-raisers. 
Come  and  examine  the  brands  for  yourself.  See  our  stock  before  deal- 
ing elsewhere. 

Branch  offices  at  Saragossa  and  all  other  towns  on  the  Texas  frontier. 
A  liberal  discount  to  the  trade.  Two  hundred  agents  wanted. 

PENDJEO  &  SINVERGUENZO. 

By  referring  to  the  map,  a  range  of  hills  may  be  perceived, 
extending  from  near  the  mouth  of  Devil's  River  to  the  vicinity 
of  San  Antonio.  Without  the  cover  afforded  by  these  hills, 
raiding  in  Texas  would  be  almost  impossible.  The  hills,  and 
the  country  adjacent  to  them,  are  utterly  uninhabited :  hence 
the  Indians  can  traverse  their  entire  length  unobserved.  Quite 
a  number  of  streams  take  their  rise  on  the  south  side  of  the 
hills  referred  to.  Among  others  may  be  mentioned  the  Seco, 
Sabinal,  Turkey  Creek,  and  Blanco.  None  of  them  are  navi- 
gable, at  least,  not  above  ground.  During  dry  seasons  most 
of  the  streams  are  reduced  to  a  succession  of  mud-puddles. 

When  the  Indians  have  agreed  as  to  the  percentage  they  are 
to  be  allowed  by  the  Mexicans,  they  cross  the  Rio  Grande  in 
squads  of  three  or  four,  and  rendezvous  in  the  mountains, 
preparatory  to  descending  into  the  valleys  for  the  purpose  of 
administering  on  the  estates  of  the  stockmen  they  may  kill. 

Right  here,  perhaps,  it  would  be  proper  for  me,  before  turn- 
ing these  Indians  loose  to  commit  all  kinds  of  deviltry,  to  de- 
scribe just  what  kind  of  villains  these  red  men  are,  as  there 
seems  to  be  some  confusion  in  the  public  mind  on  that  score. 

He  was  a  tall,  sour-looking  man  from  the  Pecos,  and  he  was 
gazing  with  interest  on  the  newly  painted  Indian  of  a  San 
Antonio  tobacco-store. 

"  That  ain't  like  no  Indian,"  he  muttered. 


512  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"What  did  you  say?"  asked  the  tobacconist,  who  was  proud 
of  his  sign. 

"  I  said  it  was  not  a  damn  bit  like  an  Indian." 

"My  friend,"  said  the  tobacconist,  "you  are  not  near  enough 


'NOT    A    DAMN    BIT    LIKE    AN    INDIAN.' 


to  it.     Step  up  and  examine  it   closely,  and  you  will  see  the 
resemblance." 

"  That  is  exactly  what  kills  the  resemblance,"  said  the  man 
from  the  Pecos ;  "  for  you  never  can  get  near  the  real  Indian 


INDIANS. 


513 


when  you  are  looking  for  him,  and  he  does  not  care  to  let  you 
examine  him  too  closely." 

The  Fenimore-Cooper  Indian,  and,  in  fact,  all  kinds  of  Indians 
that  have  been  sighted  at  long  range  by  the  writers  of  fiction, 
are  provided  with  a  noble  presence  and  a  pensive  cast  of  coun- 
tenance. The  idea  of  an  Indian  without  a  noble  presence  is 
too  absurd  for  any  thing  in  the  world  ;  and  yet  when  we  come 
to  facts,  and  look  at  the  Indian  divested  of  the  glamour  of 
romance,  unless  he  has  it  carefully  concealed  from  view,  he  has 
no  more  noble  presence  than  a  grindstone  has.  The  phrenolo- 
gist has  discovered  that  the  head  of  the  Indian  gives  evidence 
of  noble  traits  of  character.  There  is  no  telling  what  might 
not  be  discovered  if  the  phrenologist's  scientific  investigations 
were  carried  on  with  a  fine  comb;  but  it  would  not  be  noble 
traits  —  noble  traits  do  not  crawl. 

It  is  estimated  that  it  costs  the  war  department  about  half  a 
million  dollars  for  every  Indian  actually  killed  by  the  United- 
States  troops.  Would  it  not  be  cheaper  to  have  dead  Indians 
furnished  by  contract,  the  same  as  the  other  supplies  needed 
to  keep  up  the  army  ? 

It  is  another  wild  and  mildly  idiotic  delusion  to  suppose  that 
the  Indian  goes  about  consumed  away  with  a  burning  desire 
to  revenge  his  wrongs  on  the  white  man.  The  Indian  steals 
horses  from  the  white  man.  This  is  not  to  quench  a  burning 
thirst  for  vengeance,  but  to  get  money  to  buy  firewater  with. 
It  is  true  that  he  kills  and  scalps  a  few  white  men.  This  is 
merely  to  keep  up  his  reputation.  It  may  be  said  in  his  favor 
(and  it  is  the  noblest  trait  in  his  character),  that  he  will  scalp  a 
Mexican  with  the  same  kindly  spirit  of  accommodation. 

The  Eastern  sentimentalist  sees  a  great  deal  to  admire  and 
reverence  in  the  Indian  ;  and,  the  greater  the  distance  between 
him  and  the  savage,  the  more  intense  the  admiration,  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  those  who  have  opportunity  of  seeing  the 
Indian,  and  live  in  his  neighborhood,  fail  to  perceive  his  enno- 
bling virtues.  Possibly,  if  the  sentimentalist  were  placed  in  the 
same  forty-acre  field  with  the  object  of  his  admiration,  the 
former,  in  order  that  he  might  not  be  robbed  of  his  illusion, 
would  make  frantic  efforts  to  create  distance  between  them. 

33 


514  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Every  one  seems  anxious  to  have  a  good  opinion  of  the  Indian, 
for  they  do  their  best  to  keep  out  of  his  way. 

The  Kickapoo,  Lipan,  Comanche,  and  other  wild  tribes  in 
Mexico,  do  not  differ  materially  from  the  Sioux.  They  are  as 
much  alike  as  one  rotten  egg  is  like  another.  They  are  never 
really  reliable  Indians  until  their  immediate  burial  becomes  an 
urgent  sanitary  measure.  The  Mexicans  get  along  with  their 
Indians  much  better  than  we  do  with  ours.  In  the  border 
states  of  Mexico  the  Indian  is  not  permitted  to  lead  a  life  of 
idleness  and  crime.  He  is  required  to  conform  to  the  manners 
and  customs  of  the  people  among  whom  he  has  cast  his  lot. 
He  is  obliged  to  steal  for  a  living,  as  the  rest  of  the  people  do. 
The  Indian,  however,  is  not  accorded  all  his  civil  rights  in 
Mexico.  The  Mexicans  may  steal  from  each  other,  while  they 
require  the  Indians  to  confine  their  commercial  enterprise  to 
the  Texans  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande.  Race 
prejudices  are  still  alive  in  Mexico. 

As  already  stated,  the  Indian  in  Mexico  is  not  permitted  to 
disgrace  the  community  in  which  he  resides  by  a  life  of  honesty. 
As  soon  as  a  Lipan  or  Kickapoo  allows  a  moon  to  wane  without 
availing  himself  of  its  advantages  to  steal  Texas  horses,  he  is 
regarded  by  the  Mexicans  as  a  suspicious  character,  —  one  who 
will  bear  watching.  He  is  given  an  opportunity  to  show  that 
he  has  been  stealing ;  and,  if  he  cannot  vindicate  himself,  he  is 
summarily  dealt  with  as  a  public  enemy.  He  can,  however, 
re-instate  himself  in  public  esteem  by  bringing  in  a  bunch  of 
American  horses,  while  the  production  of  a  blond  scalp  con- 
dones every  honest  transaction  that  the  Indian  may  have  been 
accused  of  by  malevolent  enemies. 

Now,  the  system  adopted  by  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  in  dealing  with  the  Indian  tribes  is  wholly  different  from 
that  pursued  by  the  Mexicans.  The  beauties  of  our  system  are 
not  apparent  at  first,  and  have  to  be  carefully  studied  before 
they  can  be  appreciated.  When  a  tribe  of  Indians,  by  a  long 
series  of  murders  and  outrages,  has  established  a  reputation  for 
ungovernable  ferocity,  it  is  placed  on  a  reservation,  the  United- 
States  Government  agreeing  to  feed  and  clothe  the  Indians. 
The  reservation  is  located  in  close  proximity  to  a  populous 


INDIAN  AGENTS.  515 

part  of  the  country.  Many  people  do  not  understand  the 
reason  for  this.  There  is  a  reason,  although  it  is  difficult  to 
explain.  With  the  beef,  corn,  and  blankets  that  the  govern- 
ment furnishes,  it  also  furnishes  the  Indians  with  American 
philanthropists  called  agents.  These  agents  are  selected  on 
account  of  their  piety,  and  knowledge  of  the  Indian's  character 
and  wants.  Enemies  of  the  government  have  insinuated  that 
the  agents  have  been  selected  for  other  reasons.  The  duties 
of  an  agent  are  to  distribute  the  beef  and  blankets,  and  keep 
an  eye  on  the  Indians.  These  duties  are  so  arduous  and  ex- 
haustive that  the  agent  requires  a  vast  quantity  of  beef  and 
other  supplies  to  preserve  his  own  vitality.  It  is  estimated 
that  a  full-grown  and  experienced  Indian  agent  consumes  about 
as  much  provisions  and  general  supplies  as  five  hundred  healthy 
Indians. 

The  agent,  in  furnishing  the  government  with  the  Indians' 
board-bill,  makes  no  deduction  for  lost  time,  or  absence  from 
meals.  He  charges  for  full  time,  and  it  is  therefore  to  his 
interest  to  let  the  Indians  go  off  whenever  they  want  to.  The 
agent  furnishes  them  with  rifles  and  ammunition,  that  they 
may  pick  up  a  precarious  living  in  some  neighborhood  where 
supplies  are  plenty,  and  where  there  are  no  agents. 

At  the  outset  I  stated  that  it  was  difficult  to  explain  why  the 
government  located  the  reservations  near  to  populous  districts, 
and  I  am  afraid  I  have  not  given  quite  as  lucid  an  explanation 
as  I  would  wish.  You  see,  the  system  is  complicated,  and  a 
little  out  of  joint.  The  plain  fact  is,  that  many  of  the  reserva- 
tion Indians  make  raids  on  the  northern  frontier  of  Texas,  as 
the  Mexican  Indians  do  on  the  western  border.  The  people 
on  whom  they  are  thus  encouraged  to  depredate  are  white 
American  citizens,  who  have  done  nothing  to  deserve  those 
blessings,  except  that  they  pay  taxes  to  support  the  govern- 
ment. The  department  of  the  interior,  which  thus  seeks  to 
conciliate  what  there  is  left  over  of  the  white  frontiersmen, 
receives  immense  sums  from  the  public  treasury  to  support 
these  Indians.  Even  if  we  suppose  that  there  is  some  excuse 
for  the  Indian  being  allowed  to  live,  there  is  surely  no  excuse 
for  allowing  him  to  wantonly  destroy  the  resources  of  his  fel- 


516  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

lowman,  who  is  so  unfortunate  as  not  to  be  a  red  man.  It  is 
not  his  fault  that  he  is  white  :  he  was  born  that  way.  It  is  his 
misfortune,  but  he  should  not  be  punished  for  it.  He  is  as 
much  entitled  to  protection,  being  an  American  citizen,  as  if 
he  were  as  dirty  and  debased  as  the  greasiest  Indian  on  the 
reservation. 

The  government  does  not  protect  the  frontier-settler ;  although 
it  taxes  him  for  the  support  of  the  Indians,  and  for  the  guns, 
ammunition,  and  other  agricultural  implements,  that  are  fur- 
nished to  the  Indians,  and  that  are  indispensable  in  carrying 
out  our  sagacious  Indian  policy.  In  the  language  of  the  gifted 
Dr.  Watts,  we  are  forced  to  exclaim,  — 

"  Can  such  things  be, 
And  overcome  us  like  a  summer  cloud, 
Without  our  special  wonder?" 

There  are  two  Indian  reservations,  Fort  Sill  and  Fort  Stan- 
ton,  from  which  the  Indians  raid  into  Texas,  and  return  with 
impunity  and  much  stolen  stock.  That  the  Indians  may  not 
compete  or  interfere  with  each  other  in  plundering  the  Texans, 
these  reservations  are  located  at  different  points  on  the  Texas 
frontier.  Nothing  more  distressing  can  be  imagined  than  for 
wild  Indians  to  engage  in  war  with  e^ch  other.  By  the  reser- 
vations being  placed  very  far  apart,  this  shocking  possibility  is 
averted.  The  Fort-Stanton  Comanches  can  murder  a  family 
in  Kerr  County,  Tex.,  and  drive  off  a  herd  of  cattle  and 
horses,  without  any  risk  of  competition  from  the  Fort-Sill 
Kiowas,  who  may  be  reconstructing  a  settlement  on  the  north- 
ern frontier  while  Indians  from  Mexico  are  devastating  the 
ranches  in  the  southern  part  of  Texas  without  awakening  any 
feelings  of  resentment  in  the  breasts  of  the  Indian  agents  at 
Fort  Sill  and  Fort  Stanton ;  the  latter  probably  sacrificing 
themselves  for  the  public  good  in  drawing  the  rations  that  the 
Indians  are  supposed  to  consume.  The  stolen  horses  brought 
back  by  the  Indians  are  in  such  demand,  and  the  agent,  per- 
haps out  of  pity  for  the  red  man,  sometimes  purchases  them  at 
figures  that  leave  him  but  a  bare  margin  of  two  or  three  hun- 
dred per  cent. 


THE  POLICY  OF  THE    GOVERNMENT. 


517 


Those  who  are  disposed  to  think  lightly  of  the  sagacity  of 
our  Indian  policy  should  take  pains  to  inform  themselves  of 
some  of  these  facts.  The  Fort-Sill  Kiowas  are  very  vigilant 
in  preventing  the  Pan-Handle  portion  of  Texas  from  being  in- 
vaded by  white  settlers,  who,  if  not  interfered  with,  would  soon 
have  it  covered  with  comfortable  farms  and  ranches.  There 

is  quite  a  large  force  of 
soldiers  at  Fort  Sill,  who 
are  placed  there,  as  far 
as  can  be  seen,  for  the 
purpose  of  spending  their 
pay  with  the  post-traders. 
It  is  difficult  to  obtain 
reliable  statistics  showing 


"STARTLING    INNOVATION !- THE  SAN    ANTONIO    STAGE    NOT    ROBBED!" 

which  particular  tribe  has  done  the  most  in  furthering  what 
would  seem  to  be  the  policy  of  the  government. 

The  Fort-Stanton  Comanches  have  been  very  regular  in  rob- 
bing the  United-States  mail  on  the  El  Paso  route,  — so  much 
so,  that  on  one  occasion,  when  the  stage  came  in  unmolested, 
the  local  paper  headed  a  column  on  the  subject,  "Startling 
Innovation  !  —  The  San  Antonio  Stage  not  Robbed  ! " 


518  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the  Texas  frontier  is  liable  to 
continual  invasion  from  three  directions.  There  is  still  a  fourth 
side,  which  is  not  at  present  utilized.  Those  who  have  made 
our  Indian  policy  a  close  study  have  never  been  able  to  fathom 
the  mystery  why  the  government  does  not  establish  a  floating 
reservation  of  hostiles  on  the  Gulf  coast,  so  that  the  rich  coun- 
try, heretofore  inaccessible  to  the  Indians,  could  be  utilized  in 
carrying  out  our  Indian  policy. 

The  outrages  committed  by  the  Fort-Stanton  Indians  extend 
back  for  many  years.  Hundreds  of  white  men  have  been 
killed,  and  thousands  of  cattle  driven  off ;  but  there  is  no  rea- 
son to  believe  that  either  the  authorities  at  Washington  or  the 
agent  at  Stanton  have  heard  about  it  yet.  On  several  occa- 
sions, scouts  from  Texas  have  trailed  the  marauders  for  five 
hundred  miles  to  where  they  passed  with  the  stolen  stock 
within  sight  of  the  agent's  house  in  the  reservation. 

And  yet  in  the  Eastern  States  there  is  no  end  of  sympathy 
expressed  for  the  poor  Indian.  Sympathy  is  a  very  good  thing 
if  it  is  properly  directed.  The  little  boy,  who,  on  being  shown 
a  picture  of  Daniel  in  the  lions'  den,  burst  into  a  flood  of  tears, 
had  a  warm,  sympathetic  heart.  Amid  choking  sobs,  he  con- 
fessed that  his  anguish  was  caused  by  a  dread  that  one  of  the 
smaller  lions  might  not  get  a  bite  of  tne  prophet.  That  was  a 
case  of  misdirected  sympathy.  Will  the  friend  of  the  noble 
child  of  the  forest  "  make  the  application  "  ?  as  the  preachers 
say. 

Before  passing  from  this  subject,  I  feel  it  a  duty  I  owe  the 
Kickapoo,  to  state  that  he  is  the  dirtiest  Indian  on  earth.  His 
sanitary  condition  is  such,  that  he  would  require  to  be  dressed 
in  a  clean  shirt,  and  be  fired  out  of  a  cannon  loaded  with  car- 
bolic acid,  before  he  would  be  fit  to  anchor  at  a  quarantine 
station. 


INDIAN  DEVILTRIES. 


519 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII. 


HAVE  been,  at  one 
time  or  another  dur- 
ing the  past  few 
years,  about  forty  per- 
sons murdered  on  the 
El  Paso  stage-line.  It 
would  be  unjust  to  as- 
cribe these  murders 
to  the  energy  and  zeal 
of  anybody  except  the 
Fort  -  Stanton  Indi- 
ans. The  Indian 
agents  put  in  a  gen- 
eral denial.  They 
claimed  that  no  Tex- 
ans  were  murdered 
or  robbed,  and,  more- 
over, that  the  Fort- 
Stanton  Indians  did 
not  do  it.  Unfor- 
tunately for  the  Indian  agents,  if  they  do  not  wish  to  be  con- 
sidered irreclaimable  liars,  the  guilt  of  the  Indians  has  been  so 
positively  demonstrated  that  there  is  no  way  of  wriggling  out 
of  it.  Tte  fact  that  the  Indians  have  been  raiding  in  Texas, 
and  have,  during  their  absence,  been  drawing  full  rations  at 
the  reservation,  is  a  revelation  that  should  be  entirely  satisfac- 
tory to  those  who  have  been  perplexed  to  know  how  an  Indian 
agent  is  able  to  save  thirty  thousand  dollars  a  year  out  of  less 
than  a  three-thousand-dollars  salary. 


520  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Gen.  Ord  has,  however,  settled  the  question  as  to  the  guilt 
of  the  Fort-Stanton  reservation  Indians,  as  far  as  raids  into 
Texas  are  concerned,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  following  particu- 
lars of  Lieut.  Bullis's  celebrated  scout,  during  which  he  pur- 
sued the  Indians  to  within  three  miles  of  the  agent's  house, 
making,  in  all,  twelve  hundred  miles  travelled. 

A  band  of  Indians  had  been  stealing  stock  in  Kerr  County, 
and  the  object  of  the  scout  was  to  follow  them  to  their  homes. 
The  pursuing  party  was  composed  of  thirty-nine  Seminole  and 
three  Lipan  Indian  scouts  ;  one  Mexican  packer,  Jose  Tafoya ; 
Lieut.  F.  D.  Sharpe,  2Oth  infantry  ;  and  P.  C.  Gilbert,  U.S.A.  : 
total,  forty-five  persons,  under  command  of  Lieut.  Bullis. 

They  started  from  Las  Moras  Creek  on  Jan.  31,  1879. 
Owing  to  the  season,  and  the  rough  nature  of  the  ground, 
they  suffered  terribly.  On  Feb.  28,  the  twenty-ninth  day  of 
the  scout,  having  been  without  water  for  several  days,  their 
animals  were  scarcely  able  to  move.  Bullis  and  his  men  fully 
expected  to  perish.  When  their  distress  was  at  its  highest 
point,  David  Bowlegs,  first  sergeant  of  the  Seminole  scouts, 
reported  a  small  spring.  It  wac  a  sleeping  spring.  After  work- 
ing for  an  hour,  the  water  boiled  up  to  such  an  extent  that  three 
animals,4  drinking,  could  not  lower  it.  Very  many  of  the  large 
mules  and  horses  drank  ten  bucketsful  each.  Bullis  named  the 
spring  "  Salvation  Spring."  Near  this  place  they  found  eleven 
horses  in  the  mountains.  They  had  been  abandoned  by  the 
Indians,  who  had  gone  on  to  the  Fort-Stanton  reservation  with 
the  rest  of  the  stock.  On  the  thirty-fourth  day  of  the  scout, 
Bullis  reports,  "Camped  on  Pinaco  Creek,  about  sixty  miles 
from  Fort  Stanton,  and  thirty  miles  from  the  Mescalero  Indian 
agency.  There  were  several  ranchos  at  this  post ;  and  citizens 
reported  that  the  'Indians  had  passed  five  days  before,  and  had 
killed  one  of  their  work-oxen  as  they  passed  ;  that  five  citizens 
had  followed  them  into  the  agency ;  and  that  the  *gent  had 
compelled  the  Indians  to  give  the  owner  of  the  ox  two  of  the 
horses  brought  in  by  them,  in  payment ;  and  when  questioned 
by  the  agent,  Mr.  Godfrey,  why  they  killed  the  ox,  the  Indians 
said  they  had  been  on  a  long  journey,  — of  which  we  were  well 
aware,  —  and  were  hungry." 


GUILT  OF  RESERVATION  INDIANS.  521 

Bullis  and  his  scouts  continued  following  the  trail,  which 
passed  within  three  miles  of  the  agent's  house.  Bullis  reported 
the  fact  to  him,  and  requested  him  to  turn  the  Indians  over  to 
him  (Bullis),  as  he  wanted  to  take  them  back  to  Texas  for  the 
purpose  of  trying  them.  The  agent  promised  to  try  and  get 
the  Indians,  and  turn  them  over  to  Bullis.  He  also  said  he 
would  come  to  Stanton  during  the  week,  and  see  about  it. 

After  the  usual  dilatory  proceedings,  lasting  several  days,  a 
new  Indian  agent  addressed  the  following  communication  to 
Lieut.  Bullis  :  — 

MESCALERO  AGENCY,  March  16,  1879. 

Major  Godfrey  assures  me  that  there  is  no  probability  of  the  Indians 
you  mentioned  to  me,  coming  in ;  or,  to  use  his  own  language,  you  might 
as  well  look  for  a  needle  in  a  haystack  as  to  try  and  get  them. 

S.  A.  RUSSELL,  Agent. 

Although  the  Indians,  with  the  unrecovered  remnant  of  the 
stock  stolen  from  Kerr  County,  were  on  the  reservation,  and 
could  easily  have  been  captured  had  the  agent  been  disposed 
to  assist  Lieut.  Bullis  in  doing  so,  yet  the  latter  was  compelled 
to  retrace  his  steps  without  either  the  thieves  or  the  rest  of 
the  stock.  On  the  eightieth  day  of  the  scout,  Bullis  and  his 
foot-sore,  broken-down  animals  rode  into  Fort  Clark,  having 
marched  twelve  hundred  and  sixty-six  and  a  half  miles. 

The  foregoing  establishes  a  few  facts  that  should  occupy  the 
attention  of  the  war-department.  It  settles,  beyond  the  possi- 
bility of  contradiction,  that  the  Indians  who  raid  in  Western 
Texas  are  from  the  Fort-Stanton  reservation,  although  the 
only  persons  who  have  ever  been  sceptical  are  such  fellows  as 
Godfrey  and  Russell.  The  probabilities  are,  that  three-fourths 
of  the  robberies  and  murders  committed  in  Texas  during  the 
last  few  years  have  been  committed  by  this  class  of  Indians. 
It  also  appears  that  it  is  useless  to  attempt  to  obtain  satisfac- 
tion from  the  authorities  at  the  reservation,  who  are  indiffer- 
ent about  the  depredations  committed  in  Texas  and  Mexico. 
As  long  as  the  Indians  are  kept  on  this  reservation  we  may 
expect  to  have  trouble.  The  authorities  at  Washington  should 
move  these  Indians  to  some  secluded  spot,  where  they  would 


522  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

be  prevented  by  geographical  difficulties  from  making  Western 
Texas  their  raiding-ground,  to  the  detriment  of  the  welfare  of 
the  whole  State. 

Some  people  may  think  I  exaggerate  :  I  will  not  blame  them 
if  they  do.  The  Indian  outrages  are  committed  in  a  country 
that  is  farther  removed,  by  time  in  travelling,  from  the  seat  of 
government  and  from  the  Eastern  States,  than  New  York  is 
from  the  coast  of  Africa.  The  news  of  a  revolt  and  massacre 
in  Liberia  does  not  excite  a  man  in  Massachusetts  as  much  as 
a  dog-fight  on  the  next  block  would.  On  the  same  principle, 
the  meagre  announcement  in  the  daily  papers,  that  "  the  Indians 
raided  on  Donohue's  ranch,  killed  the  inhabitants,  and  drove  off 
the  stock,"  excites  no  sympathy. 

But  let  a  man  go  out  among  the  frontier  ranches  that  are 
liable  to  Indian  incursions  ;  let  him  talk  with  the  wives  whose 
husbands  have  been  murdered  and  scalped,  with  the  husbands 
whose  wives  and  children  have  been  butchered,  and  with  men 
and  women  who  have  had  brothers  and  sisters  tortured  as  only 
the  Devil  and  the  Indians  know  how  to  torture,  —  and  he  will 
agree  with  me,  that  no  pen  could  describe  the  crimes  perpe- 
trated by  the  red  fiends,  and  that  only  by  a  personal  visit  to 
the  scenes  of  their  savage  atrocities  can  one  realize  the  dread- 
ful effect  of  the  absurd  and  iniquitous  Indian  policy  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States. 

There  are  a  number  of  unreasonable  beings  in  several  parts 
of  the  world  who  require  proof  or  corroborative  evidence  before 
they  will  believe  any  thing.  I  call  their  attention  to  the  follow- 
ing official  document :  — 


LIST  OF  KILLED,    WOUNDED,   ETC. 


523 


ABSTRACT   "G." 

LIST   OF  PERSONS  KILLED,  WOUNDED,  AND  CAPTURED    BY  INDIANS,  IN  THE 
DEPARTMENT  OF  TEXAS,  FOR  THE  YEAR  ENDING  OCT.  i,  1878,  OFFICIALLY 

REPORTED   BY   POST-COMMANDERS. 


FORT  CLARK. 
Unknown  (Mexican  herders),  near  Sanze  Ranch,  Tex.,  Nov.  18, 

1877,  Indians. 
R.  W.  Barry  and  Juan  Diaz,  about  twenty-three  miles  below  Fort 

Duncan,  Tex.,  on  Laredo  road,  Feb.  23,  1878,  by  Mexicans. 
Unknown  (Mexican),  near  Indian  Creek,  about  ten  miles  from 

Uvalde,  Tex.,  Nov.  16,  1877,  by  Indians. 
George  Taylor  and   Dick  Taylor,  at   Mr.  Steel's  ranch  ("Palo 

Alto"),  Nueces   River,  Tex.,  April  17,  1878,  by  Lipan  and 

Kickapoo  Indians  from  Mexico. 
Two  herders,  at  Mr.  Nicholas  Colson's  sheep-ranch,  twelve  miles 

west  of  Camp  Wood,  June  i,  1878. 

FORT  DAVIS. 

Henry  Dill  (stage-driver),  at  El  Muerto,  Tex.,  Aug.  i,  1877, 
supposed  by  Indians. 

Sandy  Ball,  four  miles  west  of  El  Muerto,  Tex.,  Aug.  i,  1877, 
supposed  by  Indians. 

Gabriel  Valdez  and  Horan  Parsons,  in  Bass  Canyon,  near  Van 
Horn's  Wells,  Tex.,  by  Apache  Indians,  Dec.  23,  1877. 

Victorius  Rios  and  Sevoriano  Elivario,  at  Point  of  Rocks,  in 
Limpia  Canyon,  Tex.,  fifteen  miles  from  Fort  Davis,  Tex., 
Feb.  16,  1878,  by  Mescalero-Apache  Indians  from  Fort- 
Stanton  Indian  Reservation. 

Librado  Galindo,  Petro  Rentirio,  Julian  Molino,  Martin  Lara, 
Remulo  Montoga,  and  Madaleno  Villalobas,  about  sixty-three 
miles  north-west  of  Presidio  del  Norte,  Tex.,  Jan.  5,  1878,  by 
Mescalero-Apache  Indians  from  Fort-Stanton  Indian  Reser- 
vation. 

W.  McCall,  in  Nine-Mile  Canyon,  nine  miles  from  Fort  Quitman, 
Tex.,  April  17,  1878,  by  Mescalero-Apache  Indians  from  Fort- 
Stanton  Indian  Reservation. 

Lonjino  Gonzales  (Mexican  mail-rider),  near  Point '  of  Rocks, 
eighteen  miles  north-east  of  Fort  Davis,  Tex.,  April  20,  1878, 
by  Mescalero-Apache  Indians  from  Fort-Stanton  Indian  Res- 
ervation. 

Florentino  and  one  unknown,  at  Point  of  Rocks,  about 

eighteen  miles  north-east  of  Fort  Davis,  Tex.,  April  20,  1878, 
supposed  by  Mescalero-Apache  Indians  from  Fort-Stanton 
Indian  Reservation. 


524 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 
ABSTRACT   "  G,"  —  Continued. 


37 


46 


FORT  M'KAVETT. 

Doty,  near  Brady  City,  McCullough  County,  Tex.,  Jan. 

16,  1878,  by  Indians. 
Unknown,  in  Mason  County,  Tex.,  Jan.  16,  1878,  by  Indians. 

FORT  STOCKTON. 
John  Sanders  (stage-driver),  near  Flat  Rocks,  Tex.,  Oct.  22,  1877, 

by  unknown  parties. 

SAN  DIEGO. 
Frederick  B.  Moore,  at  San  Ygnacio,  McMullen  County,  near 

the  line  of  Duval  County,  Tex.,  3  P.M.,  April  17,  1878,  by 

Indians. 
Vicenti  Robeldo  (Gillet's  head  shepherd),  near  Brown's  ranch, 

Duval  County,  Tex.,  4  P.M.,  April  17,  1878,  by  Indians. 
Guadaloupe   Basan,   at   Rancho  Solidad,  Duval  County,  12  M., 

April  1 8,  1878,  by  Indians. 
Mexican  shepherd   and  wife,   shot,   tied  together,   and   thrown 

across  a  horse,  near  the  Solidad  ranch,  Duval  County,  Tex., 

April  18,  1878. 
John  Jordan,  at  Charco  Escondido,  Duval  County,  Tex.,  5  P.M., 

April  18,  1878,  by  Indians. 
Antonio  Valdez,  at  Charco   Escondido,  Duval  County,  Tex.,  5 

P.M.,  April  18,  1878,  by  Indians. 
Margarito  Rodriguez,  ten  miles  west  of  Charco  Escondido,  Enci- 

nal  County,  Tex.,  at  6  A.M.,  April  19,  1878,  by  Indians. 
Jose  Ma.  Canales,  at  Quijotes  Gordes,  Tex.,  12  M.,  April   19, 

1878,  by  Indians,  his  body  being  thrown  on  his  camp-fire,  and 

his  lower  extremities  consumed. 

The  foregoing  statement  includes  only  those  officially  reported 
by  post-commanders. 

HEADQUARTERS,  DEPARTMENT  OF  TEXAS, 

SAN  ANTONIO,  Sept.  30,  1878. 
(Signed)  THOS.  M.  VINCENT, 

Assistant  Adjutant-General. 

NOTE.  —  See  Address  of  the  Committee  of  the  People  to  the 
Honorable  Secretary  of  State  as  to  others  killed,  etc. 

Forty-six  killed  and  six  wounded  would  thus  be  the  total ;  nine 
killed  and  five  wounded  not  being  embraced  in  reports  from 
post-commanders. 


A    CRY  FOR  HELP.  525 

Gen.  J.  J.  Byrne,  on  the  6th  of  August,  1880,  wrote  the  fol- 
lowing letter  to  Congressman  Throckmorton,  appealing  to  him 
to  use  his  influence  at  Washington  to  have  the  people  of  the 
frontier  of  Texas  protected  from  the  Indians.  Gen.  Byrne  was 
a  brigadier-general  in  the  Federal  army  when  only  twenty-five 
years  of  age.  He  was  killed  by  the  Indians  inside  of  ten  days 
after  he  wrote  the  letter  given  below. 

• 

YSLITA,  EL  PASO  COUNTY,  TEX.,  Aug.  6, 1880. 

DEAR  GOVERNOR,  —  Knowing  no  man  within  the  limits  of  this  State 
who  takes  a  greater  interest  in  its  welfare  and  prosperity,  I  write  you  in 
the  interest  of  these  people,  and  of  this  sorely  distressed  section,  not  to 
enlist  your  sympathy  (they  have  that),  but  to  have  you  exert  your  in- 
fluence in  official  quarters  for  their  relief.  There  is  scarcely  a  day 
passes  without  witnessing  a  massacre,  perpetrated  with  all  the  fiendish 
atrocity  of  which  the  Indian  is  capable.  Interruption  of  the  mails  is  of 
daily  occurrence,  and  the  drivers  and  passengers  massacred ;  emigrant- 
trains  attacked  in  broad  daylight,  and  the  emigrants  killed,  and  their 
bodies  mutilated  in  the  most  horrible  manner.  The  greatest  insecurity 
for  life  and  property  prevails,  not  only  on  the  road,  but  extends  even  to 
the  populous  towns  along  the  river.  Victorio  and  his  band  of  three 
hundred  or  four  hundred  Indians  are  sufficient,  not  only  to  escape  the 
vigilance  of  the  Mexican  troops,  but  to  cross  over  the  river  at  pleasure, 
openly  taunt  and  challenge  the  United-States  forces  to  battle,  and  defy 
their  gallant  (?)  commander  (Grierson),  who,  on  their  appearance  in 
the  country,  retreats  to  an  almost  impregnable  mountain  fortress,  and 
commences  fortifying.  That  is  the  protection  the  United-States  Govern- 
ment is  extending  to  its  citizens  on  the  exposed  frontier.  The  result 
is,  that  travel  of  all  kinds  is  suspended,  and  the  people  of  the  district 
included  between  Franklin  (El  Paso)  and  Presidio  del  Norte  are  filled 
with  dread  and  terror.  There  is  not  a  town  on  the  river  that  is  not  at 
Victorio's  mercy  if  he  chose  to  attack  it.  The  rangers  are  powerless 
for  good,  because  insufficient  in  numbers. 

The  people  of  this  section  ask  you,  for  God's  sake,  to  exert  your  in- 
fluence to  have  some  other  soldiers  sent  them  besides  negroes,  and 
another  commander,  —  Mackenzie,  Merritt,  Davidson,  Bust,  —  any  one 
but  Grierson  or  Hatch.  They  want  a  soldier  who  will  protect  the  citi- 
zens of  his  government  by  giving  a  common  enemy  battle  whenever  and 
wherever  he  shows  himself.  The  present  policy,  if  pursued  much  longer, 
will  result  in  hermetrically  sealing  up  this  section  of  the  State.  Its  set- 


526 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


tlement  and  development,  which  was  rapidly  taking  place,  has  been 
postponed  indefinitely.  Immigration  has  ceased  to  come  in  this  direc- 
tion and  local  travel  between  settlements,  even  by  another  mode  than 
by  horseback,  discontinued. 

I  think  you  will  agree  with  me,  that  this  deplorable  condition  of  affairs 
should  be  alleviated  at  once,  and  the  prayers  and  gratitude  of  your  dis- 
tressed fellow-citizens  in  this  section  of  the  State  will  forever  attend  you 
for  any  efforts  you  make  in  their  behalf. 

Yours  respectfully, 

J.  J.  BYRNE. 
HON.  J.  W.  THROCKMORTON,  MCKINNEY,  TEX. 


Will  it  be  believed  that  bands  of  Indians  from  the  Fort-Sill 
reservation,  in  charge  of  a  few  soldiers,  penetrate  hundreds  of 
miles  into  Texas  on  hunting-excursions  ?  And  yet  such  is  the 
fact.  Only  a  short  time  ago  a  soldier  put  in  an  appearance  at 
Fort  Concho,  inquiring  for  stray  Indians  from  Fort  Sill,  over 

two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
distant.  He  was  one  of  the 
guard  of  a  party  of  Indians 
from  Fort  Sill  that  had  come 
into  Texas  to  hunt,  and  he 
had  lost  his  Indians.  He 
asked  if  any  loose  Indians 
had  come  to  the  post.  Usual- 
ly Indians  come  to  a  post 
to  get  tight,  instead  of  get- 
ting loose.  Nobody  had 
seen  the  soldier's  Indians ; 
and,  after  he  had  got  some 
supplies,  he  went  off  again. 
It  would  be  interesting  to 
the  people  of  Texas  to  know 
what  those  missing  Indians 
were  doing,  how  many  Texas 
horses  they  drove  back  to  the  reservation,  and  who  drew  their 
rations  while  .they  were  absent  in  Texas,  getting  lost,  and 
having  a  good  time  generally.  The  proper  way  would  be  to 


THE    SOLDIER    WHO    LOST 
HIS    INDIANS. 


APACHE  JOHN. 


527 


put  those  Indians  in  some  place  where  there  was  nothing  to 
eat  and  no  way  to  get  out 

There  are  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  Indians  at 
Griffin,  but  there  is  no  Indian  agent  there.  These  Indians 
have  been  friendly 
to  the  whites,  and 
rendered  them 
much  useful  service 
in  the  troubles  with 
wild  .  tribes.  The 
government  allows 
the  commander  of 
the  post  a  few  ^un- 
dred  dollars  annu- 
ally for  the  support 
of  these  Indians ; 
but  the  sum  is  so 
small  that  it  does 
not  keep  them  from 
actual  starvation. 
The  consequence 
is,  they  are  dying 
off  rapidly,  from 
lack  of  food  and 
clothing.  One  of 
the  Indians,  called 
"  Apache  John,  " 
has  written,  or  rath- 
er got  somebody  to 
write  at  his  dicta- 
tion, a  letter  to  a  gentleman  in  San  Antonio,  who  was  once 
at  Fort  Griffin,  and  with  whom  "  Apache  John "  is  well 
acquainted.  There  is  real  pathos  in  the  letter,  a  portion  of 
which  I  give  :  — 

..."  We  have  been  much  sick.  Tonkawa  Compania  died  sixteen  days 
ago ;  Smith  (another  Indian)  died  nine  days  before  Compania ;  Stephen  died 
two  months  ago  and  a  half ;  Comas  died  two  months  ago;  Alex,  died  one 
month  and  a  day  ago.  The  Tonkawas  and  Lipans  are  very  poor.  We  get  a 


'HEAP    MELONS." 


528  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

little  flour  and  a  little  beef,  some   sugar  and   coffee,  but  no  blankets   or 
calico.     We  are  very  poor,  and  a  heap  hungry  many  times.     The  sun  is  hot 

for  two  weeks.     Heap  melons,  heap  die. 

His 

"APACHE  X  JOHN." 

Mark. 

In  Gen.  Sheridan's  report,  he  refers  to  the  causes  that  have 
led  to  complications  with  the  Indians.  He  says,  among  other 
things,  — 

"  Many  complaints  have  been  forwarded  to  the  war  department  through 
these  headquarters  since  my  last  report,  showing  that  there  has  been  an 
insufficiency  of  food  at  some  of  the  Indian  agencies  within  this  military 
division  ;  and  hunger  will  always  produce  trouble.  I  have  heretofore 
reported,  and  desire  to  reiterate  my  former  statements,  that  at  least  the  beef 
ration  now  allowed  the  Indians  is  insufficient,  and  I  believe  this  may  arise 
from  inadequate  appropriations  made  by  Congress  for  this  purpose.  It 
should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  vast  country  lying  between  the  Missouri 
River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  including  Colorado  and  a  portion  of  New 
Mexico,  has  been  wrested  from  the  Indians ;  and  the  immense  herds  of 
game,  upon  which  these  Indians  formerly  subsisted,  have,  to  a  great  extent, 
disappeared;  and  that  all  the  country  mentioned  is  now  given  up  to  mining 
interests,  cattle-ranches,  and  general  agriculture ;  and  that  the  annual  market- 
value  of  the  mineral  and  food  supplies  of  this  region  aggregates  hundreds 
of  millions  of  dollars.  It  would  seem  to  me  that  such  beneficial  results  as- 
those  should  induce  Congress  to  furnish  the  poor  people,  from  whom  this 
country  has  been  taken,  with  sufficient  food  to  enable  them  to  live  without 
suffering  the  pangs  of  hunger." 

Gen.  Sheridan  goes  on  to  show  that  the  Indian  is  not  fairly 
treated.  In  a  conversation  that  I  had  with  Gen.  Ord  on  this 
subject,  I  obtained  a  great  deal  of  interesting  information  in 
reference  to  the  treatment  of  Indians  when  he  was  stationed 
at  Colorado,  Oregon,  New  Mexico,  California,  and  other  States 
and  Territories,  and  where  he  had  ample  opportunities  of 
observing  the  practical  workings  of  the  Indian  bureau.  Gen. 
Ord  was  emphatic  in  the  declaration  that  the  outrages  and 
sufferings  the  Indians  have  to  endure  from  ignorant,  or  worse 
than  ignorant,  agents,  and  the  action  of  government,  have 
never  been  properly  described.  For  instance  :  there  are  In- 
dians on  the  Pacific  coast  who  subsist  entirely  on  fish  and 
whale's  blubber  ;  the  only  vegetable  matter  they  consume  being 
a  kind  of  seaweed  that  they  eat  raw,  and  also  prepare,  by  a 


GEN.    ORD'S   OBSERVATIONS.  529 

peculiar  process,  for  winter  use.  They  are  accustomed  to  the 
salt  water,  and  do  not  mind  the  cold.  It  would  not  be  long 
before  these  Indians  would  be  moved  to  a  reservation  if  the 
squatter  wanted  the  land  for  mining  or  agricultural  purposes ; 
and  then  these  fish-eating  Indians  would  be  removed  to  some 
inland  reservation,  and  starved  to  death  on  short  rations,  sour 
flour,  and  other  diet  that  they  were  not  accustomed  to.  On  the 
other  hand,  Indians  from  the  mountains,  who  subsisted  by  the 
chase,  and  were  unaccustomed  to  fish  diet,  would  be  moved  to 
some  bleak  place  on  the  coast,  where  they  would  perish  from 
cold  and  unaccustomed  food.  Another  species  of  outrage  very 
common  was  to  place,  nolens  volens,  a  weak  tribe  on  the  reser- 
vation with  a  strong  tribe,  well  knowing  that  there  was  a  feud 
between  them,  and  that  the  stronger  would  oppress  the  weaker 
tribe  until  endurance  ceased  to  be  a  virtue.  Again,  an  Indian 
tribe  would  be  removed  from  their  home,  and  placed  in  some 
reservation  where  they  were  certain  to  be  decimated  by  fever. 
Gen.  Ord  mentioned  an  instance  in  California  where  the  In- 
dians were  expected  to  live  by  fishing,  but  not  a  single  fish-hook 
did  they  receive.  But,  to  make  up  for  the  loss,  a  fifteen-thou- 
sand-dollar church  was  built  for  them,  when  they  were  in  a 
starving  condition.  The  church  was  intended  to  be  a  perma- 
nent monument  of  the  kind-heartedness  of  the  Indian  depart- 
ment. Men  were  sent  out  as  agents  who  knew  absolutely 
nothing  about  the  Indians  and  their  wants.  There  were  only 
two  reasons  why  the  Indian  bureau  had  been  a  failure ;  namely, 
lack  of  honesty,  and  lack  of  brains.  For  year  after  year  the 
army  officers  at  the  posts  had  reported  that  the  Indians  were 
starved ;  and  no  doubt  it  was  the  cause  of  all,  or  nearly  all,  the 
trouble.  Such  was  the  result  of  Gen.  Ord's  personal  observa- 
tion when  he  was  with  those  Indians. 

Owing  to  the  way  the  government  treats  the  Indians,  it  is 
no  wonder  that  every  moon  we  read  such  telegrams  as  the 
following,  which  I  copy  from  the  Galveston  "  News  "  of  a  few 
months  ago. 

[Special  telegram  to  the  "  News."] 

EL  PASO,  Oct.  14. 

A  fight  occurred  to-day  near  Mason's  ranch,  about  fifty  miles  north- 
west of  this  place,  between  a  party  of  thirty  citizens  from  Los  Cruces 

34 


530  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

and  Mesilla,  and  a  band  of  Apaches  from  Mescalero  and  the  Warm 
Springs  reservations.     Six  volunteers  were  killed. 

VOLUNTEERS   COLLECTING.  — REGULARS  ENGAGED. 

[Special  telegram  to  the  "  News."] 

EL  PASO,  Oct.  16. 

The  volunteers,  now  numbering  eighty,  are  on  the  trail  of  the  Indians, 
and  another  engagement  is  looked  for  to-morrow. 

The  Indians  attacked  a  train  eight  miles  west  of  Mason's  last  night, 
and  killed  thirteen  men  and  one  woman.  Their  bodies  were  found 
to-day,  and  buried  by  the  volunteers.  The  United-States  troops,  com- 
manded by  Major  Morrow,  are  actively  engaged ;  but  nothing  definite  is 
known  of  his  movements  at  present. 

These  scant  telegrams  contain  all  the  news  that  the  world 
gets  of  murdered  men,  outraged  women,  and  children  butchered 
on  their  mothers'  breasts,  all  that  we  ever  hear  of  the  heroic 
but  hopeless  defence  of  the  white  man,  the  cowardly  ambush 
of  the  savages,  the  dreadful  feast  of  the  coyote,  and  the  bones 
of  the  pioneers  bleaching  on  the  prairies. 

The  following  is  copied  from  the  Congressional  records.  It 
has  the  sound  of  a  despairing  cry  for  help,  —  a  cry,  that,  it  is  to 
be  hoped,  will  move  those  in  authority  who  are  responsible  for 
the  condition  of  things  on  the  frontier. 

DOCUMENT   "E." 

ADDRESS     OF     THE     COMMITTEE     OF     THE     PEOPLE     TO    THE    HONORABLE 
SECRETARY  OF  STATE. 

SECRETARY  OF  STATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  WASHINGTON,  D.C. 

Sir,  —  We,  the  citizens  of  a  district  of  country  between  the  Nueces 
River  and  the  Rio  Grande,  in  the  State  of  Texas,  one  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  through  a  committee  duly  selected  and  appointed  by 
us,  as  hereinafter  set  forth  by  the  proceedings  of  our  meetings,  —  consist- 
ing of  the  Hon.  Joseph  Fitzsimmons,  county  judge  of  Nueces  County, 
chairman ;  Hon.  John  C.  Russell,  judge  of  the  district  court  of  the 
Twenty-fifth  Judicial  District  of  the  State  of  Texas  ;  Hon.  John  M.  Moore, 
mayor  of  the  city  of  Corpus  Christi ;  Capt.  John  J.  Dix  and  Capt.  H.  W. 
Berry,  members ;  together  with  William  H.  Maltby,  secretary,  and  Ed- 
ward Buckley,  Esq.,  Col.  Nelson  Plato,  and  William  Headen  as  corre- 
sponding secretaries,  selected  with  a  view  to  the  commendatory  charac- 


DOCUMENT 


531 


ter  of  their  official  stations,  —  beg  to  address  you  as  the  chief  of  state  of 
this  great  nation,  a  statesman  in  whom  we  have  confidence,  and  through 
you  to  speak  to  his  Excellency  the  President,  to  Congress,  and  through 
all  to  appeal  to  the  warm  and  sympathetic  hearts  of  our  countrymen. 


We  are  peaceful, 
law-abiding,  and  in- 
dustrious people.     We  have 
'•'"     come  hither  from  the  west, 
east,  north,  and  south  to  oc- 
cupy  this  wilderness   of  verdure. 
We  peacefully  follow  our  flocks 
and  herds,  which  roam  over  the 

;    ^rx    c,  .  u     wide-spreading  savannas,  through  the  lovely  valleys, 

across  the  hills,  or  scatter  far  over  the  great  ex- 
panses of  our  grander  prairies. 

Our  homes  are  far  apart.  Ten  and  twenty  and  fifty  miles  often  inter- 
vene between  our  houses.  Again :  where  streams  flow,  or  permanent 
water  is  abundant,  the  ranches  or  dwellings  are  nearer,  but  seldom,  in- 
deed, in  sight. 


7:«2 


532  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

We  have  been  greatly  exposed.  We  have  overcome  many  difficulties. 
We  have  prospered.  We  hoped  to  give  advantages  to  our  children 
that  have  been  denied  to  ourselves.  We  had  in  view  that  they  should 
become  more  useful  in  society,  more  honorable  and  distinguished  in  our 
country,  and  prove  our  support  and  crown  of  rejoicing  in  our  old  age. 

The  acme  of  our  expectations  often  has  almost  been  reached ;  and 
then  the  labors  of  years  have  been  swept  from  us  as  with  the  fury  of  a 
hurricane,  and  many  precious  lives  ruthlessly  sacrificed  to  sate  the  hate 
of  the  remorseless  Mexican  bandit,  as  well  as  to  gratify  his  hellish  greed 
and  that  of  his  allies,  the  Indian  brutes,  whom  he  gives  a  shelter  and  a 
home  in  the  mountain  fastnesses  near  Santa  Rosa,  in  the  State  of  Coa- 
huila,  Republic  of  Mexico,  from  whence,  jointly,  the  Indian  and  Mexican 
murderers  make  rapid,  and,  owing  to  intervals  determined  by  malicious 
and  malignant  judiciousness,  often  unexpected,  raids  upon  our  widely 
separated  homes.  They  scatter  our  sheep  far  and  wide,  leaving  them 
for  weeks  a  prey  to  wild  beasts,  because  their  shepherds  have  been 
driven  off  or  killed.  They  destroy  our  sheep-camps.  They  plunder 
our  houses.  They  drive  off  our  horses.  Yet  these  all  might  be  endured 
until  eventually  overcome,  were  it  not  for  the  more  fearful  horrors  which 
attend  them.  They  kill,  and  then  horribly  mutilate,  all  whom  they  en- 
counter, —  old  and  young,  men  and  women,  and  prattling  children,  and 
smiling  babes.  Our  houses  are  filled  with  sorrow,  and  our  hearts  with 
gloom;  our  hopes,  so  fondly  cherished,  are  blasted  forever;  and  life's 
anticipations  are  shrouded  in  the  darkest  night. 

Without  adequate  proof  it  would  be  deemed  incredible  that  such 
incursions,  without  provocation,  could  occur ;  that  such  incarnate  fiends 
could  be  nursed  and  fondled  and  protected  by  a  neighboring  republic  at 
peace  with  us ;  that  such  raids  have  been  made,  and  none  of  the  human 
bloodhounds  brought  to  justice,  nor  the  country  to  which  they  fled  for 
shelter  made  to  give  them  up. 

Yet,  sir,  these  are  facts.  Such  incursions  have  and  do  occur,  and 
without  provocation.  These  fiends, — to  say,  Kickapoo,  Li  pan,  and 
Seminole  Indians,  joined  with  Mexican  thieves  and  cut-throats,  —  doubt- 
less at  times  instigated  by  the  prospective  petty  chiefs,  who  require  horses 
for  another  revolution  that  it  is  expected  will  elevate  them  to  authority, 
aided,  too,  by  some  white  outlaws,  are  to-day  to  be  found  in  the 
vicinity  of  Santa  Rosa,  Republic  of  Mexico,  protected,  fondled,  and 
nursed  by  the  Mexican  Government.  The  lower  strata  of  the  Mexican 
commonalty,  who  never  have  been  satisfied  since  the  revolt  of  Texas, 
and  its  annexation  to  the  United  States,  gloat  over  the  fact,  and  roll  it 


DOCUMENT  "£." 


533 


with  satisfaction  as  a  sweet  morsel  under  their  tongues,  that  these  van- 
dals compose  the  besom  of  destruction  which  sweeps  ever  and  anon 
the  Texas  frontier,  and  desolates  the  homes  of  the  hated  "  Americanos." 
It  has  never  occurred,  that,  by  due  process  of  law,  any  of  these  maraud- 
ing villains  have  been  brought  to  justice.  Mexico  has  never  had  any 
of  them  arrested ;  has  never  taken  steps  to  give  them  up. 


^f/!i&^f-  '•••  w's$'  & 


jlpr,  /  -,-^--r!',\ ,  \mjffit  i*<x.-^|®»f  'i1.  "-':c  ^--'^  l»/55: 

;.V 

•s&\  •  •  -^ih&im&tm 


We  make  these  statements,  sir,  of  facts  to 
you,  to  the  President,  to  Congress,  and  to  the 
country.  We  ask,  "Shall  such  fearful  out- 
rages be  tolerated?  "  Nay,  more,  we  herewith  present  to  you  the  history 
of  a  recent  raid  made  during  the  full  moon  of  April  last.  It  is  suc- 
cinctly compiled  from  affidavits  of  eye-witnesses ;  and  the  raid,  from 
the  beginning  to  the  ending,  is  portrayed  seriatim  by  these  sworn  state- 
ments, duly  authenticated  before  lawful  officers  of  the  government,  under 
their  seals.  Of  necessity  the  testimony  is  ex  parte ;  yet  we  feel,  under 
the  circumstances,  on  this  account  it  will  lose  none  of  its  weight  with 
you,  with  the  President,  with  Congress,  or  with  the  country. 

We  call  upon  you,  therefore,  as  a  statesman  of  a  great  and  just  nation, 


534  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

to  avenge  our  dead,  to  punish  the  criminals,  and  insure  our  protection 
in  the  future.  We  know  there  are  malecontents  who  seek  to  stir  up  strife. 
We  are  not  of  these.  Were  we  such,  our  bitter,  burning  wrongs  are  suf- 
ficient to  drive  us  to  desperation  now.  We  know,  too,  that  florid  lan- 
guage and  intense  expression  are  used  for  political  purposes  and  partisan 
ends ;  but  we  cannot  emphasize  our  language,  or  intensify  our  expressions, 
with  the  force  they  require.  Horresco  referens  may  be  joined  to  every 
sentence,  and  spread  as  a  pall  upon  the  whole.  Our  cry  is  for  justice. 
Mexico  should  make  atonement,  and.  her  savages  should  be  expelled. 

Actuated,  sir,  by  the  grievousness  of  our  sufferings,  we  have  gone 
deliberately  to  work  at  this  matter.  We  have  gathered  sufficient  evi- 
dence to  establish  our  statements,  and  to  support  and  commend  our 
appeal.  We  submit  all  herewith,  inclusive  of  the  original  documents, 
which  we  deem  best  to  lodge  with  the  department  of  state  for  use  and 
reference.  The  simple  tale  of  each  affidavit  rivets  the  truth  of  the  fear- 
ful narrative,  and  forces  a  just  conviction.  These  are  furthermore  cor- 
roborated and  confirmed  by  the  official  reports  of  the  commanders  of 
military  posts,  doubtless,  of  this  district  of  country.  These,  we  know,  are 
at  your  command,  through  the  proper  channel  of  the  war  department, 
or  through  the  esteemed  military  chief  commander  of  Texas,  Gen.  Ord. 

To  the  history  of  the  raid  we  have  deemed  it  advisable  to  add  a  list 
of  the  killed  and  wounded,  and  a  map  of  the  country  traversed.  The 
whole  is  anxiously,  and  with  great  confidence,  intrusted  to  your  care. 
We  rely  upon  your  integrity,  position,  and  ability.  We  have  faith  that 
our  appeal  to  the  President  and  to  Congress  will  be  heard.  We  confide 
in  the  warm  hearts  of  our  countrymen,  believing  that  our  cry  shall  not 
come  before  them  in  vain,  and  that  you,  as  their  honored  Chief  of  State, 
will  redress  our  grievous  wrongs. 

We  are,  sir,  with  expressions  of  feelings  of  high  esteem  and  regard, 
most  respectfully  your  obedient  servants. 

(Signed) 

JOSEPH  FITZSIMMONS,  County  Judge  Nueces  Co.,  Tex.,  Chairman. 
JOHN  C.  RUSSELL,  Judge  Twenty-fifth  Judicial  District. 
JOHN  M.  MOORE,  Mayor  City  of  Corpus  Christi,  Tex. 
H.  W.  BERRY,  Ex-Sheriff  Nueces  Co.,  Tex. 
JOHN  J.  Dix,  County  Surveyor  Duval  Co.,  Tex. 

WM.  H.  MALTBY,  Secretary. 

EDWARD  BUCKLEY,  \ 

NELSON  PLATO,        >-  Corresponding  Secretaries. 

WILLIAM  HEADEN.  ) 


MEXICAN  DEMONSTRATIONS. 


535 


CHAPTER    XXXIX. 


le  Mexican 

ities  make  violent  demonstra- 
tions against  the  Indians  and 
Mexican  marauders,  with  a 
view  to  cause  the  people  of 
the  United  States  to  believe 
that  they  are  opposed  to  their 
thieves  crossing  into  Texas. 
The  Mexicans  have  been 
requested  to  keep  their  Indi- 
ans at  home,  and  our  govern- 
ment has  insisted  that  the 
Mexicans  should  punish  their 
Indians  for  raiding  into  Tex- 
as. The  Mexicans  did,  on  one 
occasion,  punish  some  of  the 
Indians,  and  made  quite  a 
noise  over  it,  to  show  that 
they  did  not  countenance 
such  citizens. 

We  have  all  read  that  old 
story  about  the  way  the  commander  of  a  fort  with  a  small  gar- 
rison, besieged  by  a  much  superior  force,  deceived  the  officer 
who  was  sent  in,  under  a  flag  of  truce,  to  demand  a  surrender. 
The  commander  of  the  besieged  fort  marched  his  little  garrison 
in  review  before  the  officer.  After  they  had  passed  in  review, 
they  marched  behind  him,  and  again  marched  past  in  review, 


536  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

creating  the  impression  that  they  were  another  body  of  soldiers. 
And  that  little  garrison  kept  on  marching  past,  until  the  officer 
with  the  flag  of  truce  was  petrified  with  astonishment  at  the 
immense  strength  of  the  besieged  garrison,  little  suspecting 
that  he  had  been  looking  at  the  same  crowd  five  or  six  times 
over.  The  officer  returned  to  headquarters,  and  advised  the 
besiegers  to  get  away  as  soon  as  possible. 

Now,  that  is  very  much  the  kind  of  pastime  the  Mexicans 
played  on  the  Texans.  They  captured  the  same  band  of 
Indians  four  different  times,  and  each  time  they  made  out  of  it 
a  fresh  crowd.  There  were  eighty-five  Indians  in  the  original 
band  captured  by  Col.  Ortiz,  and  five  were  killed  in  attempting 
to  escape.  This  happened  for  the  first  time  when  Gen.  Tre- 
vino  of  the  Mexican  army  was  visiting  Gen.  Ord  in  San  Antonio. 

The  glad  tidings  of  the  capture  of  the  Indians  assisted  the 
people  of  Texas  very  much  in  making  up  their  minds  that 
the  Mexicans  were  not  joking  about  frontier  protection.  It  also 
removed  any  doubts  that  the  Indians,  particularly  those  who 
were  killed,  had  on  the  subject.  It  was  especially  gratifying 
to  know  that  the  wily  old  chief  Colorado  was  among  those 
captured.  The  prisoners  were  all  to  be  removed  to  the  city  of 
Mexico.  About  a  week  afterwards,  some  new  officer  captured 
eighty-one  Indians.  They  were  Mescaleros.  The  prominent 
chief,  Colorado,  had  also  been  captured.  Five  of  them  were 
killed  dead,  positively  beyond  recovery,  in  resisting  arrest. 
The  captured  savages  were  to  be  sent  to  the  city  of  Mexico. 
This  was  good  news.  The  Texans  yearned  for  more  of  it,  and 
they  got  it.  Not  long  afterwards,  a  despatch  was  received  by 
a  frontier  paper,  stating  that  the  Mexican  Government  was 
thoroughly  in  earnest,  and  wished  to  promote  friendly  relations 
with  the  United  States,  and,  in  proof  of  its  earnestness,  reported 
that  Col.  Jose  Maria  Cosmosellama  had  just  succeeded  in  cap- 
turing eighty-two  Indians  of  the  Mescalero  tribe.  Five  resisted 
arrest,  and  were  shot.  Among  those  captured  was  old  Colo- 
rado, an  influential  chief.  The  prisoners  were  to  be  sent  to 
the  interior,  —  to  the  city  of  Mexico. 

Public  indignation  in  Western  Texas,  which  had  been  very 
strong  against  the  Indians,  began  to  moderate.  The  massacre 


OVERWORKED  MEXICAN  SOLDIERS,  537 

of  five  Indian  corpses  three  or  four  times  awakened  a  feeling  al- 
most akin  to  sympathy  for  the  remains.  There  was  also  some  sym- 
pathy for  the  Mexican  officers,  who  were  evidently  overworked. 
The  following  recent  despatch  shows  how  the  good  work 
was  still  going  on. 

CAPTURE   OF   INDIANS   BY   MEXICAN   AUTHORITIES. 
[Special  despatch  to  the  "  Daily  Express."] 

EAGLE  PASS,  Jan.  27. 

I  received  advices  to-day  from  a  reliable  party  of  Santa  Rosa,  Mex., 
that  troops  sent  out  by  Gen.  Trevino  had  returned  with  eighty-one 
Indian  prisoners.  They  were  captured  by  the  authorities  of  the  town  of 
San  Carlos,  Chihuahua,  and  delivered  to  the  troops.  Among  the  pris- 
oners was  the  noted  chief,  old  Colorado.  The  Indians  are  Mescaleros. 

The  Indians,  consisting  of  about  eighty-five  persons,  in  mak- 
ing fifty  miles  from  the  place  where  they  were  first  captured, 
lost  four  times  eighty  Indians,  or  three  hundred  and  twenty 
Indians,  by  capture ;  and  four  times  five  Indians,  who  were 
killed  four  times,  make  twenty  more  Indians.  Falstaff's 
"  men  in  buckram  "  were  nothing  to  this.  By  the  time  the 
Indians  reach  the  city  of  Mexico,  there  will  have  been  taken 
prisoners,  if  this  bad  luck  is  kept  up,  sixty  thousand  Mescaleros 
out  of  the  eighty  that  started  out.  If  the  five  Indians  who 
have  been  killed  four  times  in  travelling  sixty  miles  continue 
to  resist  arrest,  there  will  have  fallen  in  the  conflict  three  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  and  fifty  Indians  out  of  the  original  five 
who  were  shot  by  Col.  Ortiz  only  a  few  months  before.  This 
is  a  dreadful  mortality.  After  the  Mexicans  have  got  through 
with  those  Indians,  we  hope  the  latter  will  be  sent  to  the  United 
States,  that  Gen.  Howard  may  have  a  whack  at  them  —  that  is, 
if  there  are  any  of  the  eighty  left,  after  three  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  have  been  killed. 

This  reminds  one  of  the  Son  of  Temperance  who  managed 
to  keep  tight  all  the  time  without  violating  his  pledge.  He 
registered  a  solemn  vow  never  to  drink  any  thing  except  when 
he  went  out  duck-hunting.  So  he  tied  an  old  drake  up  in  a  tree 
in  his  yard  ;  and,  whenever  he  felt  one  of  those  spells  coming 
on  him,  he  would  go  out  into  the  yard,  and  blaze  away  at  the 


538 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


drake.  Then  he  would  come  back  to  the  house,  and  drive  away 
the  sense  of  discouragement  under  which  he  was  laboring  by 
three  fingers,  lengthwise,  of  Old  Bourbon. 

Whenever  Gen.  Trevino  wants  to  intoxicate  himself  with 
flattery  from  the  American  press,  he  goes  out  and  captures  the 
Mescaleros,  and  then  he  feels  better  at  once.  But  it  is  rough 
on  the  old  drake  Colorado,  and  those  five  Mescalero  corpses, 

to  have  to  be  shot  over 
again  for  resisting  arrest. 
To  a  mathematical  mind 
this  subject  is  very  em- 
barrassing. 

The  commissioners  ap- 
pointed by  Congress,  who 
visited  the  Rio  Grande, 
and  made  thorough  in- 
vestigation, reported  that 
the  assessment -roll 
showed  an  ownership,  in 
the  counties  where  the 
Mexican  and  Indian 
thieves  operated,  of  290,- 
193  cattle  and  73,593 
horses  in  1880.  They 
further  report,  that  "the 
evidence  of  all  the  ex- 
perts examined  before 
the  commission  estab- 
lishes the  alarming  fact, 

that  in  this  region  the  number  of  cattle  to-day  is  between  one- 
third  and  one-fourth  of  the  number  in  1866." 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  report  made  by  the 
commissioners  :  — 

"  The  tract  of  land  lying  between  the  Nueces  and  the  Rio  Grande  Rivers 
comprises,  on  the  Lower  Rio  Grande,  the  counties  of  Cameron,  Hidalgo, 
Starr,  Webb,  La  Salle,  Encinal,  Duval,  Zapata,  Live  Oak,  McMullen,  and 
Nueces,  —  a  tract  of  land  three  hundred  miles  long,  and  from  one  to  two 
hundred  miles  in  width. 


DUCK  HUNTING. 


CONGRESSIONAL  INVESTIGATIONS.  539 

"The  assessment-roll  of  1870  showed  in  these  counties  an  ownership 
of  nearly  five  million  acres  of  land.  The  region  is  one  vast  prairie,  and  is 
given  up  to  the  raising  of  beef-cattle  for  the  general  markets  of  the  country, 
and  to  the  breeding  of  horses. 

"  Between  the  Nueces  and  Rio  Grande  Rivers,  the  Arroyo  Colorado,  a 
salt-water  inlet,  divides  the  grassy  prairie  between  it  and  the  Nueces,  from 
the  sandy  desert  stretching  on  its  other  side  along  the  Rio  Grande.  This 
sandy  tract  bears  only  the  mesquite-shrub  and  a  thin  fringe  of  vegetation 
along  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Grande.  This  dry  waste  was  formerly  consid- 
ered to  be  an  effectual  safeguard  to  the  interior  of  Texas. 

"In  the  tract  thus  described,  although  thinly  settled  (large  ranches 
many  miles  apart  dotting  it  here  and  there  only),  the  assessment-roll  of 
1870  showed  an  ownership,  in  the  counties  named,  of  299,193  cattle  and 
73)593  horses,  although  there  was  no  return  made  of  the  stock  in  Live  Oak 
and  McMullen  Counties.  The  very  peculiar  custom  of  the  owners  as  to  the 
herding  of  their  stock  (which  roams  on  the  unfenced  ranges),  as  well  as  their 
interest  in  returning  a  low  value  on  their  property  for  assessment,  forbids 
them  making  an  overstatement  of  their  cattle  ;  while  horses,  more  carefully 
guarded,  are  given  in  at  a  fairer  enumeration. 

"  Unfenced,  save  in  a  few  isolated  instances,  the  stock-ranges  of  this 
region  gave  subsistence  to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  cattle  in  excess  of 
the  assessed  number ;  and  under  the  influence  of  the  northers  these  cattle, 
in  grazing,  move  towards  the  south  and  west.  Large  numbers  thus  move 
down  into  this  region  from  the  valley  of  the  Lower  Rio  Grande,  and  from 
ranches  beyond  the  Nueces.  When  they  cross  the  Nueces  River,  they 
mingle  with  the  local  herds,  largely  increasing  their  numbers,  remaining  thus 
strayed  until  the  agent  of  the  owner  enters  them  in  his  annual  report,  and, 
according  to  instructions,  sells  them,  or  returns  them  to  their  distant  owners. 
The  neighboring  counties  of  Goliad,  Refugio,  San  Patricio,  Karnes,  Atas- 
cosa,  and  Uvalde,  contribute  thousands  to  the  once  countless  herds  that 
occupy  this  region.  The  Texas  cattle  range  over  great  stretches  of  prairie  ; 
often,  in  dry  seasons,  going  a  day's  march  for  water,  and  then  returning  to 
their  accustomed  pastures. 

"  Once  yearly  they  are  driven  up  by  the  rancheros,  examined,  branded, 
separated,  the  strayed  stock  moved  on  towards  their  owners'  ranches,  or 
disposed  of,  and  an  account  of  their  number  taken.  The  distance  traversed 
in  search  of  the  cattle  of  one  herd  is  surprising ;  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  not  being  unusual.  Ownership  is  determined  by^the  brands 
applied  and  the  peculiar  ear-mark,  a  record  of  which  is  required  by  law  to 
be  kept  in  the  county-clerk's  office.  These  brands  are  also  published  in 
the  various  newspapers  in  the  region  as  standing  advertisements.  When  a 
herd  is  sold,  the  sale  of  the  brand  is  recorded.  The  custom  is  to  separate 
for  sale  the  four-year-old  steers,  the  females  being  retained  in  the  herd  for 
breeding.  The  stock-raisers'  associations  regulate  the  method  of  handling 
the  herds,  decide  on  rules  for  common  protection,  and,  in  attempting  to 


540  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

maintain  an  efficient  private  police,  have  shown  a  commendable  zeal  in  pro- 
tecting the  interests  represented  by  their  members.  In  giving  personal  and 
official  notice  to  the  various  State  and  Mexican  authorities,  in  suggestincr 

oo  o 

and  attempting  to  make  effective  a  fair  system  of  hide-inspection,  and  in 
other  respects,  the  associated  stock-raisers  of  Western  Texas  have  exhausted 
every  means  at  their  disposal,  with  a  view  to  protect  their  interests. 

"  The  character  of  the  occupation  in  which  they  are  engaged,  the  present 
value  of  cattle  in  Texas,  the  scarcity  of  lumber,  together  with  the  peculiar 
features  of  land-tenure,  prevent,  as  a  rule,  the  fencing  of  their  ranges,  many 
of  them  being  owned  in  common  by  various  rancheros  holding  complicated 
titles.  Ranches  of  from  ten  thousand  to  two  hundred  thousand  acres  are 
here  employed  solely  for  stock-raising.  This  region,  by  reason  of  the  irregu- 
larity of  the  season,  is  ill  adapted  to  agricultural  pursuits,  and  is  devoted 
entirely  to  grazing.  Freights  are  high,  the  country  has  no  railroad  commu- 
nication, and  the  Texan  ox,  a  source  of  moderate  profit  to  the  breeder, 
passes  through  many  hands,  and  pays  toll  to  different  local  companies  before 
reaching  the  Northern  consumer. 

"  The  stock-raisers  in  the  region  referred  to  are  a  liberal  and  industrious 
class  of  citizens,  placed  in  a  trying  position ;  and  the  hard  labor  of  years  is 
represented  in  their  flocks  and  herds.  The  land  they  own  has  no  value, 
unless  peaceable  possession  is  assured  them.  The  good  feeling  existing 
among  them  as  a  class  is  evidenced  by  their  general  willingness  to  ex- 
change powers-of-attorney  to  protect,  as  far  as  possible,  their  mutual 
interests  in  the  recovery  of  strayed  or  stolen  stock.  The  advantage  to  be 
derived  from  co-operation  on  the  part  of  owners  will  be  seen  in  the  fact 
that  cattle  bearing  the  brands  of  King  &  Kenedy,  Hale  &  Parker.  T.  Hines 
Clark,  and  other  owners  of  large  herds,  have  been  traced  for  hundreds  of 
miles  along  the  Rio  Grande,  and  on  the  Mexican  side  from  Monterey  to 
Bagdad,  either  by  the  movements  of  the  strayed  or  stolen  cattle,  or  handling 
of  hides  stripped  from  them. 

"  Reference  to  the  Report  of  the  Third  Annual  Fair  of  Texas,  held  at  San 
Antonio,  shows  that  a  herd  of  seventy-five  thousand  cattle  will  ordinarily 
range  over  an  area  of  country  one  hundred  miles  long  and  fifty  miles  wide. 
With  expert  thieves  depredating  on  this  property,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the 
damage  must  amount  to  millions  of  dollars.  Herds  numbering  fifty  thou- 
sand to  seventy-five  thousand  are  not  unusual  in  Western  Texas.  The 
stock-raiser,  living  on  his  isolated  ranch,  shows  his  prosperity  in  continually 
augmenting  his  herds  of  breeding-cattle  by  purchase,  and  acquiring  lands 
for  their  subsistence.  The  yearly  income  is  derived  from  the  sale  of  the 
steers  fit  for  market. 

"  The  employment  of  from  twenty  to  three  hundred  men  in  the  manage- 
ment of  these  herds  is  not  unusual;  and  a  thorough  examination  of  the 
system  as  it  exists  (and  it  cannot  be  but  changed  in  the  growth  of  popula- 
tion, improvement  of  cattle,  establishment  of  railroad-lines,  and  fencing  the 
vast  prairies)  convinces  the  commissioners  that  the  stock-raisers  of  Western 


CONGRESSIONAL  INVESTIGATIONS,  541 

Texas  are  legitimately  engaged  in  a  business  of  the  greatest  local  impor- 
tance, indirectly  affecting  the  whole  interests  of  the  country,  and  making 
subservient  to  the  uses  of  man  a  vast  area  of  territory  which  would  other- 
wise be  an  unproductive  waste. 

"  With  large  capital,  immense  herds  of  cattle,  and  men  and  material  in 
proportion,  it  is  the  conviction  of  the  commissioners,  that  this  interest  is 
one  of  sufficient  magnitude  to  have  extended  over  it  the  protecting  arm  of 
this  government :  otherwise,  although  now  of  national  importance,  it  must 
soon  perish  at  the  hands  of  bands  of  freebooters,  who  find  a  safe  refuge  on 
the  convenient  shores  of  our  sister  republic  of  Mexico,  and  the  residents  of 
this  frontier  left  stripped  of  the  fruits  of  years  of  thrift  and  industry. 
Wherever  it  is  possible,  stock-raisers  enclose  land  as  rapidly  as  their  means 
will  allow,  and  in  one  case  forty  miles  of  fence,  between  two  arms  of  Cor- 
pus Christi  Bay,  have  been  recently  built,  enclosing  the  vast  herds  of  Mifflin 
Kenedy.  The  prosperity  of  this  region  rests  on  the  basis  of  quiet  occupa- 
tion of  the  stock-ranges,  and  efficient  protection.  Where  local  irregularities 
•do  not  at  all  affect  this  business,  it  can  only  be  some  fatal  internal  influence 
which  will  bring  ruin  on  men  thus  legitimately  engaged.  The  general  fea- 
tures of  horse-raising  do  not  differ  from  the  plan  pursued  with  regard  to 
cattle,  save  that  more  care  is  necessarily  taken  with  the  herds.  Needed  in 
large  numbers  for  continual  use,  the  herds  of  horses  are  generally  kept 
around  the  headquarters  of  the  owners,  and  are  thus  more  effectually  pro- 
tected. As  large  numbers  of  horses  are  used  and  worn  out  in  the  herding 
of  cattle,  this  species  of  property,  although  a  valuable  adjunct  to  the  cattle 
interest,  is  seldom  a  source  of  income. 

"  The  commissioners,  having  endeavored  to  sketch  out  the  vast  extent  of 
the  interests  involved,  proceed,  with  direct  reference  to  facts,  to  an  exami- 
nation of  the  past  and  present  condition  of  the  stock-raising  interests  of 
the  Rio-Grande  frontier. 

"At  the  close  of  the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  these  plains  were  covered 
with  vast  herds  of  cattle,  largely  increased  during  the  years  of  the  war,  as 
the  Northern  market  was  closed,  and  cattle  for  the  Confederacy  were  ob- 
tained from  Northern  and  Eastern  Texas.  The  evidence  of  all  the  experts 
examined  before  the  commission  establishes  the  alarming  fact,  that  in  this 
region  the  number  of  cattle  to-day  is  between  one-third  and  one-fourth  of 
the  number  in  1866. 

"  The  rate  of  increase  of  cattle  in  Texas  is  thirty-three  and  a  third  per 
cent  per  annum,  as  shown  by  the  concurrent  testimony  of  nearly  one  hun- 
dred witnesses  examined  before  the  commission,  embracing  experts  of  every 
kind,  citizens  disinterested,  and  parties  in  interest.  This  opinion  is  fully 
confirmed  by  W.  G.  Kingsbury's  '  Essay  on  Cattle-Raising :  (Report  Third 
Annual  Fair  of  Texas,  p.  41),  also  by  Major  Sweet's  pamphlet  (p.  6),  also 
by  Texas  Almanac  (p.  206). 

"  The  annual  sales  of  beef-cattle  seldom,  if  ever,  exceed  one-half  the  yearly 
increase,  as  the  evidence  goes  to  show  that  the  cows  are  always  kept  for 


542  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

breeding  purposes ;  that  no  local  disease,  drought,  or  unusual  sales  have 
occurred  calculated  to  reduce  these  herds  below  their  average  numbers ; 
and  the  records  of  these  counties  show  but  little,  if  any,  complaint  of  local 
cattle-stealing. 

"  The  commissioners  feel  fully  warranted  in  expressing  the  opinion,  that 
for  years  past,  especially  since  1866,  and  even  before,  armed  bands  of  Mexi- 
cans have  continually  employed  the  safe  refuge  of  an  adjoining  territory, 
and  the  favorable  river  frontier,  to  cross  from  Mexico  into  Texas,  in  strong 
parties,  collect  and  drive  away  into  Mexico  unnumbered  herds  of  cattle 
from  this  region.  These  thieves  have,  with  astonishing  boldness,  penetrated 
at  times  one  hundred  miles,  and  even  farther,  into  Texas,  and  by  day  and 
night  carried  on  this  wholesale  plundering,  employing  force  and  intimidation 
in  all  cases  where  resistance  or  remonstrance  was  met  with.  Confederates 
living  along  the  banks  of  the  river  have  been  used  in  this  nefarious  trade, 
while  honest  residents  have  been  forced  to  keep  silence,  or  fly. 

"  The  Mexican  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande  is  occupied  by  numbers  of 
ranches,  furnishing  a  convenient  rendezvous  for  these  marauders,  from 
whence  they  carry  on  openly  their  operations,  often  leading  to  conflicts. 
Pursuit  to  the  river-bank  in  many  cases  has  been  mocked  at ;  the  ineffectual 
efforts  of  customs-officers  and  inspectors  have  been  jeered  at,  and  this  region 
made  to  suffer  from  the  continual  scourges  of  these  thieves.  The  butchers 
of  the  frontier  Mexican  towns,  the  stock-dealers,  and,  in  many  cases,  the 
heads  of  the  various  ranches  on  the  Mexican  side,  have  participated  in  the 
profits,  encouraged  the  work,  and  protected  the  offenders.  The  Mexican 
local  authorities,  as  a  rule,  civil  and  military,  have  been  cognizant  of  these 
outrages,  and  have,  with  one  or  two  honorable  exceptions,  protected  the 
offenders,  defeated  with  technical  objections  attempts  at  recovery  of  the 
stolen  property,  assisted  in  maintaining  bands  of  thieves,  or  directly  and 
openly  have  dealt  in  the  plunder,  or  appropriated  it  to  their  personal  uses. 
In  all  cases  coming  before  these  corrupt  officials,  thoroughly  acquainted  by 
personal  and  official  notification  and  public  notoriety  of  this  serious  and 
continual  breach  of  international  rights,  they  have  either  protected  the 
criminal,  and  shared  with  him  the  property  stolen,  or  else  have  confessed 
an  inability  to  check  the  outrages,  and  punish  the  offenders. 

"  The  local  authorities  of  Matamoras,  Mier,  Bagdad,  Camargo,  and  other 
frontier  Mexican  towns,  have  been  repeatedly  notified  of  these  complica- 
tions ;  the  United-States  and  Mexican  military  authorities  have  corresponded 
thereon;  the  supreme  government  of  Mexico  has  been  duly  apprised  of  the 
state  of  the  border  by  earnest  correspondence  of  United-States  civil  and 
military  officers,  transmitted  through  the  American  minister,  to  which  atten- 
tion is  specially  called;  and  in  the  opinion  of  the  commissioners,  with  the 
exception  of  the  tardy  recall  of  Gen.  Juan  N.  Cortina,  in  March,  1872,  no 
step  tending  toward  an  amicable  and  honest  vindication  of  the  Mexican 
people  has  been  taken ;  while  to  evince  her  good  faith,  and  earnest  desire 
for  the  enforcement  of  the  laws,  the  State  of  Texas  has  lately  organized 


CONGRESSIONAL  INVESTIGATIONS.  543 

and  maintains  a  system  of  cattle  and  hide  inspections,  in  which  undertaking 
she  is  ably  seconded  by  the  Stock-raisers'  Association  of  Western  Texas. 
Private  parties  have  appointed  local  agents  to  protect  their  interests.  The 
local  press  has  appealed  ineffectually  to  the  reason  of  the  Mexicans,  and 
called  in  vain  for  the  execution  of  the  laws. 

"  That  the  action  of  the  local  Mexican  authorities  has  been  characterized 
by  duplicity,  connivance  at  fraud,  or  a  complete  subserviency  to  a  corrupt 
military  rule,  there  seems  to  be  but  little  room  left  for  doubt;  while  the 
records  of  the  military  authorities  of  Mexico  occupying  the  frontier  (espe- 
cially the  regime  of  Gen.  Juan  Nepomuceno  Cortina,  from  1870  to  1872)  is 
one  which  calls  for  immediate  action  on  the  part  of  the  Mexican  Govern- 
ment in  disavowing  the  acts,  disgracing  the  offenders,  and  effecting,  with  the 
victims  of  these  high-handed  outrages,  such  an  adjustment  of  their  claims 
as  impartial  justice  requires. 

"  Under  the  trying  circumstances  of  being  confronted  on  the  opposite 
bank  of  the  Rio  Grande  by  a  foreign  army,  which  has  given  protection  for 
a  series  of  years  to  the  invaders  of  American  territory,  the  United  States 
has,  through  its  officers,  kept  peace,  preserved  neutrality,  and  acted  with 
candor  and  justice,  mindful  of  its  long-established  friendly  feeling  for  a 
sister  republic.  The  left  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande  has  always  been  sought 
as  a  base  for  insurrectionary  operations  against  the  ephemeral  governments 
of  Mexico ;  and  the  United  States  has,  in  all  cases,  acted  with  commendable 
promptness  in  maintaining  strict  neutrality. 

"  While  the  United  States  has  improved  every  opportunity  to  execute  in 
good  faith  her  treaty  obligations,  and  settle  on  an  equitable  and  just  basis 
all  existing  differences  with  the  Republic  of  Mexico;  and  while  the  Stale 
of  Texas  has  taxed  her  treasury  to  execute  laws  unnecessary,  save  to  repel 
the  invasion  of  her  territory  by  Mexican  outlaws,  who  have  made  life  and 
property  unsafe  on  her  soil,  the  theatre  of  their  cold-blooded  and  brutal 
murders,  —  the  evidence  adduced  before  the  commission  warrants  the  con- 
clusion, that  the  indifference  on  the  part  of  the  Mexican  Government,  touch- 
ing her  international  obligations  and  the  condition  of  affairs  on  her  northern 
frontier,  has  been  studied. 

"The  harassing  question  of  the  Zona  Libre  does  not  fall  within  the 
province  of  the  commissioners  to  examine ;  but  they  feel  called  on  to  notice 
the  extension  of  this  zone,  in  opposition  to  the  most  friendly  remonstrances 
of  the  United  States,  as  another  evidence  of  the  spirit  which  has  character- 
ized the  policy  of  the  Mexican  Government  in  its  dealings  with  the  United 
States  for  a  series  of  years. 

"  In  giving  a  resume  of  the  evidence  taken  before  the  commission,  touch- 
ing the  disorders  on  the  frontier,  we  trace  this  cause  primarily  to  the  effete, 
corrupt,  and,  in  many  instances,  powerless,  local  civil  authorities  of  Northern 
Mexico,  the  almost  universal  demoralization  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Mexi- 
can frontier,  the  supremacy  of  a  corrupt  and  overbearing  military  influence, 
giving  form  and  aid  to  the  lawless  expeditions  that  have  been  set  on  foot  in 


544  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Mexico  for  years  past  to  invade  and  plunder  the  exposed  frontier  of  West- 
ern Texas,  the  unfriendly  legislation  on  the  part  of  the  law-making  power 
of  the  Republic  of  Mexico,  which  has  made  the  Zona  Libre,  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Rio  Grande,  a  depot  on  our  immediate  line  for  the  reception  of 
goods,  duty  free,  to  be  smuggled  over  our  borders,  with  the  annual  loss  to 
us  of  millions  of  revenue,  or  the  alternative  of  studding  this  portion  of  our 
western  boundary  with  an  expensive  army  of  customs-inspectors.  The 
establishment  of  this  'free  zone'  per  se  militated  against  the  commercial 
interests  of  the  United  States ;  and  when  followed  up  by  the  appointment 
of  Brigadier-Gen.  Juan  N.  Cortina  to  the  command  of  the  line  of  the  Bravo, 
in  1870,  where  he  remained  in  command  until  March,  1872,  —  the  terror  of 
the  residents  of  the  Texan  frontier,  and  the  aider  and  participant  in  a  series 
of  lawless  acts,  —  the  action  of  the  Mexican  authorities  in  this  regard  can 
only  be  interpreted  as  a  direct  blow  at  the  commerce  of  our  western  fron- 
tier; and  the  maintenance  of  a  military  force  there  under  the  leadership  of 
a  commander  whose  career  for  murder,  arson,  and  robbery,  finds  no  parallel 
in  the  annals  of  crime,  and  whose  retention  in  the  command  of  the  northern 
frontier  of  Mexico  puts  in  evidence  the  inability  of  the  Mexican  Government 
to  cope  with  this  outlaw  and  his  followers ;  or  else  his  assignment  to  this 
position  by  his  government  for  the  performance  of  a  work  which  had  for  its 
object  the  annihilation  of  the  commercial  and  industrial  interests  of  our 
southern  frontier.  .  .  .  The  amount  of  property  taken  and  destroyed,  the 
long  continuance,  with  impunity,  of  these  outrages  upon  our  soil  by  Mexi- 
cans crossing  our  borders  in  the  presence  of  the  army  of  the  United  States 
and  the  authority  of  a  sovereign  State  of  this  Union,  are  matters  of  suffi- 
cient public  concern,  in  our  judgment,  to  require  at  our  hands,  even  at  the 
risk  of  being  considered  tedious,  a  statement  in  detail  of  the  manner  in 
which  these  cattle-thieves  have  carried  on  their  illicit  traffic  for  so  many 
years,  in  defiance  of  the  civil  and  military  authorities  charged  with  the  duty 
of  giving  protection  to  the  lives  and  property  of  the  residents  on  our  frontier. 

"  The  character  and  extent  of  the  territory  on  which  these  depredations 
have  been  committed  for  so  many  years  past  offer  facilities  for  the  commis- 
sion of  crime  not  to  be  found  in  any  other  part  of  this  country.  Expeditions 
for  the  purpose  of  cattle-stealing  in  Texas  have  generally  been  organized 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande,  in  the  State  of  Tamaulipas,  although 
not  unfrequently,  as  a  change  of  base,  in  the  State  of  Coahuila.  The  men 
engaged  in  this  work  are  Mexicans,  well  mounted,  carrying  fire-arms  of  the 
most  approved  pattern,  and  not  unfrequently  belong  to  the  regular  army  of 
Mexico. 

"Thoroughly  acclimated,  and  accustomed  to  the  hardships  and  exposure 
incident  to  a  frontier  life,  these  bands,  mounted,  armed  and  provisioned  for 
the  expedition,  have  but  the  shallow  water  of  the  Rio  Grande  and  a  journey 
of  from  one  to  three  days  before  them,  often  without  water  for  man  or  beast, 
ere  they  reach  the  grazing-regions  of  the  Nueces,  and  the  numerous  herds 
of  cattle  to  be  found  in  that  valley.  Systematic  in  all  their  movements,  and 


CONGRESSIONAL   INVESTIGATIONS. 


545 


thoroughly  conversant  with  the  routes  of  travel,  and  the  water-holes  leading 
to  the  grass-regions,  these  bands,  when  ready,  lose  no  time  in  dividing 
themselves  into  squads,  averaging  five  or  more,  according  to  the  circum- 
stances surrounding  them ;  and  crossing  at  different  points  the  Rio  Grande, 
a  stream  whose  sinuosities  describe  every  point  of  the  compass,  they  enter 
the  dense  mesquite  fringing  its  banks,  and  emerge  from  it  into  the  high- 
ways, or  continue  on  their  journey  under  its  cover,  as  may  best  suit  their 
purpose,  until  they 
reach  the  place  of 
rendezvous,  desig- 
nated by  scouts  pre- 
viously sent  out. 

"Having  made 
their  selection  of  cat- 
tle from  the  herds, 
not  unfrequently  to 
the  number  of  six- 
teen hundred,  ac- 
cord ing  to  their 
necessities  and  the 
circumstances  of  thj| 
case,  no  time  is  lost 
in  pushing  them, 
without  rest,  under 
the  cover  of  night 
(or  in  open  day  if 
strong  enough  to  re- 
sist attack),  to  the 
river;  a  point  hav- 
ing been  previously  MEXICAN  HORSE-THIEVES  CROSSING  THE  RIO  GRANDE. 
designated  for  this 

purpose,  at  which  they  are  met  by  confederates,  coming  from  the  Mexican 
bank,  with  every  facility  —  including  cattle,  boats,  etc.  —  for  the  rapid  transit 
of  their  booty  to  Mexican  soil,  where  it  is  used  by  the  Mexican  army,  dis- 
posed of  to  the  butchers  of  Matamoras,  Mier,  and  Camargo,  sold  in  open 
market  for  the  benefit  of  the  thieves,  or,  after  being  re-branded,  used  to 
stock  the  ranches  on  the  Mexican  frontier.  The  crossing  of  these  bands  of 
Mexicans  in  small  squads  into  Texas  attracts  no  attention  there,  for  it  is 
within  the  bounds  of  the  probabilities  of  the  case  to  estimate  the  Mexicans 
as  composing  at  least  eighty  per  cent  of  the  entire  population  of  the  frontier 
of  Western  Texas." 

Since  the  foregoing  report  was  made  by  the  congressional 
committee,  a   committee   of   the    State    Legislature   of  Texas 
reported,  that,  on   the    Lower    Rio  Grande,  the  depredations 
35 


546  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

had  increased  to  such  an  extent,  that  only  ten  per  cent  now 
remained  of  the  vast  herds  that  had  a  few  years  before 
covered  the  plains  adjacent  to  the  Mexican  border. 

Capt.  McNally,  in  charge  of  a  company  of  State  troops, 
reported,  Dec.  14,  1875,  to  Gen.  Potter,  that  in  seventeen 
days  more  than  two  thousand  head  of  cattle  had  been  stolen 
in  Texas,  and  carried  into  Mexico. 

Our  government  has  repeatedly  informed  the  Mexican  Gov- 
ernment, that  United-States  troops  would  cross  into  Mexico, 
and  punish  the  raiders,  if  the  Mexican  Government  could  not 
stop  the  raids.  The  Mexican  Government  admits  its  inability 
to  prevent  the  raiding  of  the  Mexicans  and  Indians  into  Texas. 
Senor  Lafragua,  the  Mexican  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  gives 
three  reasons  why  his  government  is  powerless,  —  first,  the 
troops  would  desert  if  sent  to  the  frontier ;  second,  the  in- 
ternal condition  of  the  country  renders  it  impossible  to  spare 
troops  ;  and,  third,  the  state  of  the  national  treasury  would  not 
justify  the  expense. 

What  the  Mexican  Government  and  the  Mexican  people  lack 
in  strength  they  make  up  in  pride.  They  are  not  able  to  stop 
the  raiding  themselves,  and  too  proud  to  let  us  do  it  for  them. 
When  our  soldiers  cross  the  Rio  Grande  in  pursuit  of  cattle- 
thieves  and  murderers,  the  Mexicans  call  it  an  "  invasion,"  and 
they  bluster  and  snort.  They  go  off  and  eat  some  beans  to 
give  them  courage,  and  then  they  talk  with  astonishing  fluency 
and  presumption  about  war. 

When  our  government  calls  their  attention  to  some  extraor- 
dinary outrage  perpetrated  by  Mexicans  on  our  citizens,  they 
say  that  they  will  attend  to  it  directly,  or  as  soon  as  they 
have  put  down  the  revolution  that  they  have  on  hand  at  the 
time.  But  they  pay  no  more  attention  to  the  matter,  knowing 
that  the  United  States  never  insists  on  redress  for  wrongs  done 
her  citizens.  The  Mexicans  know  that  our  government  will 
talk  and  investigate,  and  talk  and  pass  resolutions,  and  then 
talk  some  more  about  the  matter,  and  that  it  will  all  end  in  the 
report  of  a  congressional  committee.  So  they  merely  listen 
with  courteous  attention  to  our  complaints,  and  then,  with 
great  magnanimity  and  condescension,  drop  the  subject. 


MILD  LANGUAGE  BY  HAMILTON  FISH.  547 

The  United-States  Government  reminds  one  of  the  man  who 
was  severely  kicked  on  the  frontier  of  his  person,  so  to  speak, 
and  who  did  not  resent  the  indignity  because  he  never  paid 
attention  to  any  thing  that  happened  behind  his  back. 

I  would  consider  it  a  personal  favor  if  the  reader  would  not 
skip  the  following  correspondence  :  — 

[Mr.  Fish  to  Mr.  Nelson.] 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE,  WASHINGTON,  Feb.  7, 1871. 

SIR,  —  I  transmit  a  copy  of  the  reply  of  the  secretary  of  war  to  the 
letter  of  this  department,  which  was  accompanied  by  a  copy  of  your 
despatch,  No.  336,  of  the  xoth  ultimo,  relative  to  Indian  affairs.  It 
will  be  noticed  that  the  secretary  of  war  deems  it  advisable  that  the 
required  consent  of  the  Mexican  Congress  to  the  entrance  of  United- 
States  troops  into  that  republic,  near  the  frontier,  for  the  purpose  referred 
to,  should  be  obtained.  You  will  consequently  adopt  such  measures 
for  that  purpose  as  may  seem  to  you  proper,  and  likely  to  be  successful. 
In  a  matter,  however,  which  must,  if  not  judiciously  managed,  wound 
the  sensibilities  of  a  people  so  averse  to  any  thing  like  an  invasion  of 
their  soil  by  foreigners,  it  will  be  necessary  to  move  with  great  delicacy 
and  caution,  not  merely  with  a  view  to  compass  the  object  desired,  but 
to  avoid  giving  offence  by  even  proposing  it.  Confidence,  however,  is 
reposed  in  your  discretion. 

i  &ITK  etc.} 

HAMILTON  FISH. 

[Mr.  Fish  to  Mr.  Nelson.] 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE,  WASHINGTON,  Feb.  27, 187*. 

SIR,  —  I  transmit  a  copy  of  a  letter  of  the  23d  instant,  and  of  the 
papers  which  accompanied  it,  addressed  to  this  department  by  the 
secretary  of  the  interior,  relative  to '  depredations  by  Kickapoo  In- 
dians from  Mexico  upon  Texas.  It  is  represented,  that,  in  making 
these  depredations,  those  savages  were  encouraged,  if  not  instigated,  by 
Mexicans.  You  will  again  make  a  representation  upon  this  subject  to 
the  Mexican  minister  for  foreign  affairs.  It  must  be  obvious  to  that 
government,  that  the  savages  referred  to  cannot  fail  to  occasion  great 
irritation  among  those  citizens  of  Texas  who  suffer  from  them ;  and 
that,  in  the  interest  of  the  good  understanding  which  we  are  desirous 
of  maintaining  with  the  Mexican  Republic,  the  government  of  that 
republic  is  expected  to  exert  its  authority  toward  checking  the  raids 
of  the  robbers  adverted  to.  T 

A     dill;      L  1C.  j 

HAMILTON  FISH. 


548  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

If  the  reader  is  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  he  will  be 
pleased  to  learn  that  the  United-States  Government  deprecates 
the  raids  of  the  Mexicans  so  much,  that  its  foreign  secretary 
calls  the  attention  of  the  Mexican  Government  to  the  fact  that 
these  ravages  cannot  fail  to  occasion  "great  irritation"  among 
the  people  of  Texas  who  suffer  from  them  ;  and  he  will  no 
doubt  feel  proud  of  the  "great  delicacy  and  caution"  evinced 
by  his  government  in  dealing  with  a  people  whose  sensibilities 
are  easily  wounded.  He  will  doubtless  be  disgusted  with  the 
arrogant  tone  of  the  following  letter  from  the  representative  of 
the  English  Government,  —  a  government  that  has  become  cele- 
brated for  protecting  its  rights  and  subjects,  regardless  of 
whether  its  action  should  "  wound  the  sensibilities  "  of  foreign 
governments  or  not.  As  the  reader  can  make  his  own  com- 
parison between  Mr.  Fish's  style  and  that  of  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell, further  comment  by  me  would  be  superfluous. 

[Earl  Russell  to  Sir  C.  Wyke.] 

FOREIGN  OFFICE. 

SIR,  —  I  have  received  your  despatches  of  the  26th  and  28th  of  July, 
and  I  have  to  convey  to  you  the  entire  approval  of  her  Majesty's  gov- 
ernment of  your  conduct  as  therein  reported. 

The  suspension  for  two  years,  of  all  payments  in  discharge  of  debt,  at 
a  time  when  the  Mexican  Government  can  afford  to  spend  six  million 
dollars  in  six  months,  is  a  shameless  breach  of  faith,  which  cannot  be  in 
the  slightest  degree  excused  by  the  pretences  put  forward  by  Senor 
Zamacona  in  its  defence. 

Senor  Zamacona  asserts  that  the  present  government  of  Mexico  are 
actively  employed  in  maintaining  internal  and  social  order,  in  re-organiz- 
ing the  administration  of  the  republic,  in  introducing  rigid  economy 
into  all  the  branches  of  the  public  service,  and  in  vigorously  putting  an 
end  to  the  civil  war,  and  restoring  internal  peace  to  the  country.  But 
it  is  notorious  that  every  one  of  these  assertions  is  directly  the  reverse 
of  the  truth.  It  is  well  known  that  life  and  property  are  nowhere  safe, 
not  even  in  the  streets  of  the  capital ;  that  the  administration  is  as  cor- 
rupt, and  reckless  of  any  interests  but  their  own  personal  advantage,  as 
any  that  has  heretofore  governed  in  Mexico ;  that  great  anarchy  and 
disorder  prevail  in  all  the  departments  of  the  government ;  and  that,  so 
far  from  their  having  applied  the  resources  of  the  State  to  a  vigorous 
suppression  of  the  civil  war,  the  opposite  party,  under  the  adherents  of 


STRONG  LANGUAGE  BY  EARL  RUSSELL.       549 

Miramon,  were,  by  the  last  accounts,  in  great  force  within  a  short  dis- 
tance of  the  capital,  and  not  unlikely  to  become  its  masters. 

Her  Majesty's  government,  it  is  needless  to  say,  cannot  accept  such 
excuses  for  the  wrongs  of  which  her  Majesty's  subjects  in  Mexico  have 
been  the  victims ;  and  therefore,  if  the  proposals  contained  in  my 
despatches  of  the  2ist  ultimo  are  not  accepted  by  the  Mexican  Govern- 
ment, you  will  finally  break  off  relations,  and  put  yourself  in  communi- 
cation with  Rear-Admiral  Milne,  who  will  receive  instructions  from  the 

admiralty  on  this  subject. 

I  am,  etc., 

RUSSELL. 


550 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER     XL. 


WE  approached  the  Rio  Grande, 
we  found  very  few  cattle  ;  but 
herds  of  sheep  were  in  sight 
all  the  time.  With  most  of 
the  herds  there  were  from  fifty 
to  a  hundred  goats.  Upon  in- 
quiry we  learned  that  the  goats 
are  kept  because  their  flesh  is 
the  cheapest  and  most  available 
meat  that  can  be  had.  The 
shepherds  like  it  better  than 
mutton. 

The  reporter  is  responsible 
for  the  facts  in  the  following :  — 
A   commission  was  sent  to 
Texas  in  1872  to  investigate  the 

border  outrages.  While  the  committee  was  in  session,  an 
Italian  named  Champini,  the  owner  of  a  stage-line,  appeared, 
by  his  attorney,  Col.  "Rip"  Ford,  and  presented  a  claim  for 
compensation.  The  petition  prayed  for  indemnification  for  a 
herd  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  goats  stolen  from  him  in  1867. 
Champini  claimed  direct  and  indirect  loss.  He  asked  to  be  paid 
for  the  natural  increase  of  the  original  herd.  Goat-raisers  were 
examined,  and  testified  as  to  the  average  increase  of  the  goat. 
Jesus  Villereal  and  others  stated,  that,  in  Cameron  County,  goats 
had  two  families  annually,  —  not  less  than  two,  often  three,  at 
each  effort.  Upon  this  basis  Col.  Ford  was  instructed  to  make 
such  calculation  as  would  demonstrate  the  exact  number  of  goats 
that  the  original  herd  would  have  increased  to  at  that  time. 


"  TEXAS    WON'T  HOLD  HER    GOATS."  551 

After  trying  the  rule  of  three,  geometrical  progression,  and 
all  the  rules  of  ascending  series,  he  concluded  that  they  did 
not,  somehow,  suit  the  case.  By  these  rules  he  found  more 
goats  than  he  knew  what  to  do  with.  He  scratched  his  ear, 
and  swore  in  an  undertone. 

Major  Savage  had  meanwhile  made  the  calculation.  Noti- 
cing the  perplexity  of  Col.  Ford,  he  inquired,  "  Colonel,  haven't 
you  found  out  all  the  goats  yet  ? " 

"Damn  the  goats  !  "  said  the  colonel :  "they  seem  to  me  to 
multiply  in  the  most  unreasonable  way.  Let  me  see.  A  goat 
has  three  kids  in  March,  and  two  in  September.  Then  the 
March  kids  have  young  when  they  are  eighteen  months  old, 
and  by  that  time  —  well,  in  short,  I  make  it  two  million  five 
hundred  and  twenty-one  thousand  and  eighteen  goats.  The 
Lord  help  us !  If  the  figures  don't  lie,  and  the  goat-business 
ain't  stopped,  in  ten  years,  sir,  Texas  won't  hold  her  goats." 

"Your  calculation  is  quite  correct,"  said  Major  Savage. 

There  was  present  during  the  investigation  a  German  who 
had  just  collected  a  claim  for  loss  of  five  mules  stolen  by  Mexi- 
cans. He  became  very  much  excited  when  he  heard  the  result 
of  the  goat  calculation.  He  addressed  the  committee  as  fol- 
lows :  "  Schentlemens,  I  vants  natural  ingreese  on  mine  mooles, 
by  tarn  !  It  was  not  fair  to  giff  ingreese  on  der  goats,  und  not 
on  der  mooles.  I  vants  dot  schentlemans  vat  gounted  der 
goats  to  poot  some  off  dot  figuring  on  mine  mooles." 

The  committee  tried  to  explain  to  the  German  that  the  figur- 
ing that  suited  goats  would  not  work  when  applied  to  mules  ; 
but  he  was  too  much  excited  to  understand  it  at  the  time. 

The  Rio  Grande  runs  exactly  over  the  line  laid  down  as  the 
boundary  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico,  owing  to 
which  singular  coincidence  the  river  has  been  adopted  as  the 
boundary.  The  Mexicans  call  the  Rio  Grande  the  Rio  Bravo. 
The  latter  word  means  turbulent,  brawling.  The  Rio  Grande 
is  a  very  long  river  at  some  seasons  of  the  year,  and  at  others 
it  is  much  shorter.  During  the  summer  of  1869  the  bed  of 
the  river  was  perfectly  dry  for  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  above  El  Paso.  So  permanent  was  this  dryness, 
that  the  people  planted  corn  in  the  middle  of  the  river-bed. 


552  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

During  the  spring,  it  is  not  only  a  long,  but  a  wide  stream, 
and  is  liable  to  tremendous  floods,  that  overflow  the  banks,  and 
desolate  the  surrounding  country. 

I  have  said  that  the  Rio  Grande  is  the  boundary  between 
Mexico  and  Texas.  When  the  river  is  up  and  is  a  mile  wide, 
with  a  depth  sufficient  to  float  a  man-of-war,  it  is  then  regarded 
as  the  boundary-line  by  the  Mexican  raiders.  When  the  river 
is  shallow,  and  the  moon  is  full,  the  boundary-line  cannot  be 
perceived  by  the  Mexicans.  In  the  treaty  between  the  United 
States  and  Mexico,  the  middle  of  the  stream  is  declared  the 
boundary  ;  but,  when  there  is  not  any  stream,  of  course  there 
cannot  be  any  boundary-line. 

The  chief  peculiarity  of  the  Rio  Grande  is  its  crookedness. 
It  is  said  to  be  almost  as  crooked  as  the  transactions  of  the 
custom-house  officials  on  its  banks.  Wonderful  stories  are 
told  of  the  crookedness  of  the  stream.  It  is  navigable  for 
some  distance  from  its  mouth  ;  but  boats  have  to  twist  and 
turn  so  much,  that  they  get  weak  in  the  back,  and  loose  in  the 
rivets,  in  less  than  a  week's  run.  A  steamboat-captain  tells  it 
as  a  fact  that  he  once  ran  into  another  vessel  that  was  steam- 
ing ahead  of  him.  He  saw  the  lights  on  the  other  vessel,  but 
thought  they  were  those  on  the  stern  of  his  own  boat.  If  the 
captain's  statement  was  not  true,  then  the  story  itself  is  very 
strong  evidence  that  the  crookedness  of  the  river  affects  the 
minds  of  those  who  have  any  thing  to  do  with  it.  No  steam- 
boat-captain accustomed  to  a  straight  river  could  possibly  in- 
vent such  a  story. 

There  is  a  very  marked  resemblance  between  the  Rio  Grande 
and  the  natives  who  live  on  its  banks.  They  are  both  of  a 
dirty  coffee-color.  The  question  arises,  Does  the  Mexican  get 
his  color  from  the  river,  or  vice  versa  ?  Undoubtedly  from 
vice  versa,  and  not  from  the  river.  It  is  true  that  certain  insects 
partake  of  the  nature  of  the  plants  that  they  graze  on,  the  tree- 
frog,  for  instance ;  but  the  Mexican  does  not  graze  on  the  river. 
If  he  bathed  in  it  a  great  deal,  the  river  might  be  accused  of  be- 
ing responsible  for  the  Mexican's  complexion.  But  since  a  ferry- 
boat, in  1848,  was  upset  near  Matamoras,  in  the  Rio  Grande,  few 
instances  of  Mexicans  bathing  in  the  river  have  been  cited. 


A   REMARKABLE  RESEMBLANCE. 


553 


On  one  other  occasion  a  party  of  Mexicans  were  induced  to 
try  the  Rio-Grande  water  by  a  squad  of  United-States  cavalry. 
They  disliked  very  much  to  violate  the  traditions  of  their 
fathers  by  wetting  themselves.  They  were  in  the  State  of 
Texas  and  in  a  state  of  indecision,  and  it  was  death  to  stay 
there.  They  crossed  over  the  river  that  day  —  but  it  was  not 
the  Rio  Grande. 

In  many  other  respects  there  is  a  remarkable  resemblance 
between  the  Rio  Grande  and  the  Mexican.  Both  are  frequently 


CROSSING    THE    RIVER. 


dry,  with  the  difference  that  the  river  needs  water,  while  the 
Mexican  requires  aqua  diente  or  mescale.  The  Rio  Grande  is 
guilty  of  sudden  risings  :  so  are  the  Mexicans.  Both  uprisings 
desolate  the  country,  and  cause  the  loss  of  much  life  and  prop- 
erty. After  the  river  has  spread  all  over  the  country,  it  as 
suddenly  subsides  :  so  with  the  Mexican  revolutions.  There  is 
no  telling  when  they  may  occur  or  subside.  The  channel  of 
the  river  is  another  uncertain  thing.  Nobody  knows  where  to 
look  for  it  to-morrow.  There  is  no  fixed  channel.  To-day  it 
will  be  breaking  into  a  bank  on  the  Mexican  side :  next  day 
it  will  be  meandering  over  the  prairies  on  the  American  side, 


554  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

carrying  off  property  that  does  not  belong  to  it.  It  is  just  so 
with  the  Mexican.  It  is  hard  to  say  which  side  of  the  Rio 
Grande  he  properly  belongs  to.  He  is,  however,  in  the  habit 
of  regarding  all  loose  property,  on  either  side,  as  belonging  to 
himself ;  and  he  carries  it  off.  The  Mexican  who  claims  to  be 
a  Mexican  citizen,  and  lives  over  in  Mexico,  is  as  much  like 
the  Mexican  who  lives  in  Texas,  and  claims  to  be  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  as  one  buzzard  is  like  another :  in  fact,  he  is 
often  one  and  the  same  individual.  When  there  is  an  election 
going  on  in  Texas,  you  will  see  and  hear  him  about  the  polls, 
as  full  of  whiskey  and  party  pride  as  if  he  were  a  simon-pure 
American.  He  can  swear  as  fluently  in  English  as  if  he  knew 
no  other  tongue  ;  and  he  has  become  so  thoroughly  American- 
ized, that  he  will  vote  in  two  or  three  wards,  and  perjure  himself, 
with  a  facility  that  puts  the  American  to  the  blush.  He  can 
also  hold  two  or  three  offices  at  the  same  time,  and  draw  their 
salaries,  as  readily  as  if  he  had  red  hair  and  blue  eyes,  and  his 
name  were  Mike.  As  an  American  juror  he  has  no  equal,  and 
as  a  witness  he  has  no  superior.  He  can  swear  to  an  unlimited 
number  of  lies  before  a  jury,  with  a  consistency  of  statement 
and  a  placidity  of  demeanor  that  make  him  the  envy  of  the 
white  races  represented  on  the  Rio  Grande.  He  can  even 
make  Fourth-of-July  speeches,  and,  if  he  sees  money  in  it, 
hurl  sarcasms  and  invectives  at  the  perfidious  mongrel  who 
infests  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande.  And  yet,  per- 
haps, the  very  next  week  after  going  through  all  these  truly 
American  accomplishments,  you  may  find  him  over  in  Mexico, 
at  the  head  of  a  gang  of  ruffians  who  would  have  put  Falstaff's 
recruits  to  blush,  carrying  on  a  revolution  in  the  name  of  God 
and  liberty. 

This  arrangement,  by  which  the  Rio-Grande  Mexican  can  be 
a  citizen  of  two  countries,  as  circumstances  may  require,  is  of 
great  advantage.  Occasionally  he  gets  into  trouble.  He  is 
found  riding  a  horse  that  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  one 
that  was  stolen  in  Texas.  When  the  trial  comes  off,  a  cloud  of 
witnesses  from  the  Mexican  side  of  the  river  appear  in  court, 
and  fully  establish  the  complete  innocence  of  the  accused  by 
proving,  that,  at  the  time  the  horse  was  stolen,  the  accused  was 


A    CITIZEN   OF  TWO    COUNTRIES. 


555 


in  jail  in  Mexico  for  highway  robbery,  or  it  is  proved  that  he  is 
a  Mexican  citizen  ;  therefore  that  the  courts  on  this  side  of 
the  river  have  no  jurisdiction  whatever  under  the  treaty.  If 
he  is  arrested  in  Mexico,,  he  sets  up  his  American  citizenship, 
or  establishes  an  alibi. 

When  the  Mexican  authorities  are  applying  for  volunteers, 
the  Mexicans  come  over  to  this  side,  and  are  American  citizens. 


MEXICAN    VOLUNTEERS. 

That  the  Mexican  volunteers  should  fly  to  this  side  of  the  river 
may  seen  strange  to  those  not  acquainted  with  Mexican  affairs, 
and  requires  explanation.  The  Mexican  word  is  voluntario. 
The  voluntaries  are  first  caught,  very  much  as  the  English 
used  to  catch  their  sailors.  A  big  ball,  or  fiesto,  is  given,  t< 
which  all  the  Mexicans  within  convenient  distance  are  invited 
There  are  sounds  of  revelry  by  night,  and  all  goes  merry  as 
an  unmarried  belle.  Suddenly  the  place  is  surrounded  by 


556  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

soldiers,  who  capture  all  the  able-bodied  men,  and  make  volun- 
taries of  them  by  tying  them  together,  by  the  hands,  to  a  long 
rope.  Gen.  Don  Miguel  de  Casabianca,  in  his  report  to  the 
Mexican  Government,  has  an  item  of  expense :  "  Three  dollars 
for  one  hundred  feet  of  rope  to  tie  volunteers  with." 

As  the  public  mind  is  very  much  occupied  just  now  with 
Mexico  and  Mexican  affairs,  a  few  lines  on  the  cause  of  revo- 
lutions in  that  country  may  not  be  without  value,  particularly 
as  it  is  a  subject  on  which  even  the  people  of  Texas,  excepting 
those  living  along  the  Rio  Grande,  are  not  very  well  informed. 
The  popular  idea  is,  that  the  Mexican  people  are  opposed  to  all 
legal  restraint,  always  ready  to  raise  the  standard  of  revolt, 
being  afflicted  with  a  chronic  disposition  to  become  unruly  and 
turbulent.  No  greater  delusion  exists.  The  Mexicans  are  the 
very  reverse  of  quarrelsome.  They  do  not  care  who  governs 
their  country,  and  will  stand,  without  a  murmur,  an  almost 
unlimited  degree  of  official  exaction  and  tyranny.  They  are 
naturally  indolent,  and  opposed  to  any  superfluous  exertion,  or 
undue  excitement  of  any  kind.  Why,  then,  are  there  so  many 
petty  revolutions  and  counter-revolutions  springing  up  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  vast  territory  of  our  sister  republic  ? 

The  explanation  can  be  given  in  a  word, — the  custom- 
houses. Where  the  carcass  is,  there  will  the  buzzards  be 
gathered  together.  A  Mexican  frontier  town  that  has  the  bad 
luck  not  to  be  provided  with  a  custom-house  enjoys  uninte'r- 
rupted  peace  and  order.  No  such  tranquillity  can  be  found  any- 
where in  the  United  States,  unless  it  be  in  some  secluded 
graveyard.  On  the  other  hand,  a  Mexican  town  that  enjoys 
sufficient  commercial  prosperity  to  justify  the  establishment  of 
a  custom-house  suffers  all  the  horrors  of  war  every  few  months. 
The  houses  are  riddled  with  bullets,  and  the  public  buildings 
are  out  of  repair,  owing  to  the  use  of  bombshells.  The  people 
receive  their  pronunciamentos  as  regularly  as  if  they  subscribed 
and  paid  in  advance  for  them  ;  and,  as  for  levying  prestimas,  the 
science  is  taught  in  the  schools. 

In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  men  who  get  up  a  revolution  in 
Mexico  are  not  Mexicans  at  all,  but  foreigners, — Americans, 
Hebrews,  Germans,  or  whoever  the  merchants  doing  business 


HO IV  REVOLUTIONS  ARE  STARTED. 


557 


in  the  custom-house  town  may  be.  Allow  me  to  introduce  the 
dramatis  persona  who  take  parts  in  that  highly  entertaining 
farce  entitled  "  Latest  News  from  Mexico." 

Don  Jacob  Anybody,  a  foreign  merchant  doing  business  at 
the  port  of  Alguna  Parte  in  Mexico. 

Gen.  Jose  Maria  Sinverguenza,  a  professional  revolutionist 
and  experienced  loafer,  out  of  employment.  He  is  a  Lerdo 
man. 

Gen.  Jesus  de  Bendejo,  a  perfect  match  to  the  foregoing  in 
all  p  a  r  t  i  c  u- 
lars,  except 
that  he  is  for 
Diaz,  anil  is 
in  possession 
of  the  custom- 
house. 

Citizens, 
p  e  I  a  d  o  s 
(scum),  riff- 
raff, soldiers, 
God.andliber- 
ty,  a  few  bush- 
els of  beans, 
Don  Dinero, 
and  other  re- 
quisites, in- 
cluding sev- 
eral gallons 
of  m  esc  ale. 

The  whole  matter  is  easily  arranged.  Don  Anybody,  the 
foreign  merchant,  who  is  obliged  to  pay  duties  at  the  custom- 
house, has  become  convinced  that  a  local  revolution  is  indis- 
pensable to  the  public  prosperity,  and  his  own  too.  He  has  an 
interview  with  Gen.  Sinverguenza,  who  is  found  loafing  about 
the  saloons,  or  playing  monte.  The  merchant  tells  him  about 
the  unconstitutionality  of  the  claims  of  the  present  incumbent 
of  the  custom-house,  how  the  sacred  rights  of  the  citizens  are 
trampled  under  foot,  how  the  present  government  is  truckling 


GEN.    SINVERGUENZA    AND    HIS    TROOPS. 


558  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

to  the  Gringos,  how  the  whole  Mexican  people  are  looking  to 
him,  Sinverguenza,  as  their  coming  Moses.  Fortune  is  wink- 
ing at  him.  Why  does  he  hesitate  to  draw  his  sword,  and  pro- 
nounce in  favor  of  Lerdo,  or  whatever  may  be  the  name  of  the 
president  at  the  time  ? 

Gen.  Sinverguenza  replies  that  he  would  cheerfully  wade 
about  in  gore  if  he  only  had  the  money  to  meet  his  travelling- 
expenses.  Don  Anybody  responds  that  he  loves  his  adopted 
Mexico  too  hotly  to  hesitate  loaning  the  heroic  Sinverguenza 
all  the  money  he  needs  :  he  will  lend  him  enough  to  bribe  the 
hirelings  of  the  Pendejo  army,  who  are  guarding  the  custom- 
house, and  to  hire  about  forty  more  cattle-thieves  to  drive  out 
the  opposition,  provided,  that,  as  soon  as  Sinvergueaiza  is  in 
possession  of  the  custom-house,  he  will  give  his  friend  the 
merchant  permits  to  pass  in  goods  without  any  duty  on  them. 

But  it  is  tedious  to  follow  this  mournful  farce.  Gen.  Sinver- 
guenza, inspired  by  the  sacred  fire  from  the  altar  of  liberty, 
and  by  the  money  he  receives  from  the  patriotic  foreign  mer- 
chant, at  the  head  of  perhaps  forty  or  fifty  rapscallions,  falls 
upon  the  custom-house  party  tooth  and  nail.  Gen.  Pendejo 
calls  out  his  tried  and  trusty  henchmen,  most  of  whom  have 
already  been  bought  up  at  a  dollar  a  head  by  the  enemy ;  and 
the  result  is,  that  he  and  his  few  adherents  who  have  not  sold 
out  are  chased  out  of  town.  Sometimes  a  man  gets  acci- 
dentally shot  by  the  careless  handling  of  fire-arms ;  but,  as  a 
general  thing,  both  sides  are  so  careful,  that  the  revolution  is 
bloodless. 

Then  Gen.  Sinverguenza  has  the  custom-house,  and  is  in 
clover.  He  pronounces  in  favor  of  the  president  who  put  the 
other  fellow  in.  And  that  good  man,  the  foreign  merchant, 
does  not  miss  the  reward  for  his  generous  devotion  to  the  Con- 
stitution. He  pays  no  duties  on  his  goods  :  and  you  may  be 
sure  he  makes  hay  while  the  sun  shines ;  for  he  knows  it  will 
not  be  long  before  his  rival  in  trade  will  be  hunting  up  the 
fugitive  Pendejo,  whom  he  will  subsidize  by  glowing  words  of 
patriotism,  and  some  cash,  to  run  the  intruder,  Sinverguenza, 
out,  so  that  he,  the  rival  merchant,  can  make  a  little  profit  too, 
in  the  way  of  exemption  from  paying  duties  on  the  goods  he 


HOW  REVOLUTIONS  ARE  STARTED.  559 

imports.  As  for  the  dear  people,  they  take  about  as  much 
interest  in  it  as  they  do  in  the  Eastern  war  question.  Thanks 
to  the  foreign  merchant,  "  The  New- York  Herald  "  and  other 
leading  papers  are  informed  that  Gen.  Soandso  has  done  this 
or  that,  and  it  reads  as  if  the  poor  Mexicans  were  always  spoil- 
ing for  a  fight ;  whereas,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  these  petty 
revolutions  are  carried  on  in  the  interest  of  the  merchants  who 
advance  the  sinews  of  war. 

The  Rio-Grande  country  is  the  usual  place  in  which  revolu- 
tions are  started.  The  advantages  are  numerous  and  manifest. 
In  the  first  place,  the  country  along  the  Rio  Grande  on  the 
Texas  side  is  admirably  adapted  for  organizing  bands  of 
patriots.  There  is  also  abundance  of  material  at  hand, — 
murderers,  horse-thieves,  and  other  similar  characters,  who 
naturally  feel  a  deep  interest  in  bringing  about  a  reform  in  the 
government.  The  population  is  almost  wholly  Mexican ;  and, 
the  country  being  mostly  jungle,  the  conspirators  are  protected 
alike  from  the  regular  troops  of  both  governments.  When 
every  thing  is  ready,  the  coming  president,  at  the  head  of  forty 
or  fifty  hired  ragamuffins  who  would  be  a  disgrace  to  an  ordi- 
nary penitentiary,  crosses  over  into  Mexico,  captures  some 
small  town,  issues  a  proclamation  that  reads  like  a  circus- 
poster,  persuades  a  few  wealthy  Mexicans  to  advance  a  thou- 
sand dollars  at  the  muzzle  of  the  musket,  and  the  revolution  is 
under  way.  From  a  small  beginning  like  this,  Mexican  states- 
men have  driven  presidents  into  exile,  and  occupied  their 
places.  Again  :  if  the  revolutionary  forces  are  defeated  at  the 
start,  they  can  readily  fall  back  across  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
wait  for  a  more  convenient  season.  At  all  events,  they  are 
safe  from  being  shot. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  advantage  the  Rio  Grande  affords 
the  Mexican  revolutionist.  From  the  Texas  side  he  draws  the 
horses  on  which  he  can  seek  a  place  of  safety,  and  the  beeves 
with  which  he  prevents  the  walls  of  his  stomach  from  irritating 
each  other.  Another  thing  that  makes  the  Rio  Grande  a  most 
desirable  revolutionary  stream  is  its  great  distance  from  the 
city  of  Mexico.  As  the  revolutionist  can  select  his  own  point 
on  the  fourteen  hundred  miles  of  Rio-Grande  boundary,  he 


560  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

usually  prefers  a  point  where  there  are  no  government  troops 
to  make  dough  of  his  cakes.  Before  the  authorities  at  the  city 
of  Mexico  can  have  a  force  within  striking-distance,  the  revo- 
lution has  grown  to  be  too  large  to  handle.  This  is  a  great 
advantage.  In  fact,  the  Rio  Grande  has  been  invaluable  to 
the  Mexican  people.  The  great  national  pastime  has  been 
revolutions,  and  without  the  Rio  Grande  no  revolution  would 
be  practicable.  In  fact,  the  history  of  Mexico  is  little  else 
besides  the  successive  marches  of  Mexican  generals  from  the 
Rio  Grande  to  the  city  of  Mexico.  As  every  Mexican  presi- 
dent must  reasonably  expect  to  be  run  out,  and  have  to  start 
in  again  on  the  Rio  Grande,  he  is  naturally  very  anxious  to 
keep  on  good  terms  with  the  natives,  and  particularly  the  lead- 
ing men  of  the  frontier.  As  these  leading  men  are  pecuniarily 
interested  in  the  stock  stolen  from  Texas,  —  it  being  their  pro- 
fession to  deal  in  any  thing  that  belongs  to  other  people, — it 
is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  Mexican  president  is  going  to 
take  active  measures  to  suppress  raiding,  and  thereby  make 
mortal  enemies  of  the  men  he  is  liable  at  any  time  to  have  to 
call  on  for  assistance  in  getting  up  a  revolution  to  oust  the 
men  who  ousted  him.  Besides,  it  is  contrary  to  public  policy 
to  interfere  with  or  curtail  the  legitimate  and  time-honored 
business  of  the  people.  All  remonstrances  on  the  part  of  the 
Washington  authorities  have  been  received  with  every  demon- 
stration of  profound  respect,  and  then  stored  away  in  the  waste- 
basket  with  the  rest  of  the  protests  already  on  file.  That  the 
Mexican  Government  should  stir  up  a  hornet's  nest  on  the  Rio 
Grande  merely  to  accommodate  a  lot  of  Gringos  is,  to  the 
Mexican  mind,  an  absurdity.  The  idea  of  turning  over  a  Mexi- 
can criminal  to  the  American  authorities  is  regarded  as  a  crime; 
and  the  Mexican  official  who  even  suggests  such  a  thing  is 
ruined  forever.  This  is  no  fancy  sketch  ;  for  when,  in  1876, 
one  of  the  Mexican  banditti  who  broke  open  the  jail  at  Rio 
Grande  City,  murdered  and  wounded  several  American  officials, 
and  liberated  a  choice  assortment  of  Mexican  cut-throats, — 
when  one  of  the  most  insignificant  of  these  men  was  turned 
over  to  the  Americans,  Diaz,  who  ordered  it,  was  fearfully  de- 
nounced in  the  most  opprobrious  language.  He  was  even  called 


MILITARY  COURTESY.  561 

a  "  friend  of  the  Gringos."  A  prominent  Mexican  paper  on  the 
Rio  Grande,  the  leading  journal,  —  almost  as  large  as  a  sheet  of 
foolscap, — had  at  the  head  of  its  editorial  columns  the  taunt, 
"  Is  Diaz  a  Mexican  ?  "  The  Mexican  president  who  undertook 
to  interfere,  and  hamper  the  trade  of  the  country,  was  no  longer 
popular.  It  was  the  case  of  makers  of  images  of  the  great  Diana 
of  the  Ephesians  over  again.  "Thereby  they  had  great  gains." 

There  is,  moreover,  a  wide-spread  delusion  as  to  the  proper 
ownership  of  Texas.  The  Mexicans  are  still  disposed  to  regard 
it  as  a  part  of  Mexico,  never  having  really  accepted  the  situa- 
tion caused  by  the  war.  To  them  it  is  Mexican  territory,  par- 
ticularly at  the  full  of  the  moon  and  at  such  times  as  the  Rio 
Grande  is  fordable.  In  the  mean  time  raids  becojne  absolutely 
intolerable. 

The  soil  on  the  Mexican  side  seems  to  be  very  much  the 
same  as  that  on  the  American  side ;  but,  if  American  troops 
cross  over  into  Mexico,  every  Mexican,  from  the  president 
down,  or  up,  as  the  case  may  be,  sits  upon  end,  and  howls. 
All  Mexico  is  stirred  up.  So  intense  is  the  excitement,  that, 
while  the  Mexican  editor  writes  fiery  articles  with  one  hand, 
he  brandishes  his  sword  in  the  other,  and  prepares  to  march  to 
the  Rio  Grande  en  route  to  Washington.  Everybody,  even 
those  who  have  wooden  legs,  fairly  ache  to  wade  about  in  blood. 
The  Mexican  who  hesitates  to  express  his  firm  conviction  that 
he  can  eat  from  five  to  ten  Gringos  before  breakfast  is  accused 
of  lacking  public  spirit. 

Now,  when  a  body  of  Mexican  cavalry,  in  pursuit  of  thieves, 
follow  them  over  into  Texas,  the  American  people  do  not  get 
excited  about  it.  The  United-States  troops  tender  their  as- 
sistance in  capturing  the  banditti ;  and  the  Mexican  cavalry  can 
prance  about  on  Texas  soil  as  much  as  they  please,  without 
awakening  any  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Americans  to  organize 
an  excursion  to  revel  in  the  halls  of  the  three-card  Monte- 
zumas.  If  the  Mexican  soldiers  in  Texas  require  any  rations 
or  ammunition,  the  United-States  Government  will  esteem  it  a 
favor  if  it  is  allowed  to  supply  them.  The  United-States 
officers  invite  the  Mexicans  to  visit  the  posts,  receive  them 
with  a  salute,  and  drink  prosperity  to  Mexico. 
36 


562  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Now,  this  sensitiveness  on  the  part  of  the  Mexican  people 
furnished  the  clew  how  to  undo  the  Gordian  knot  without  cut- 
ting it  with  the  sword.  Heretofore  the  American  troops  had 
respected  the  Rio-Grande  boundary.  They  had  orders  not  to 
cross  over,  for  there  was  a  profound  peace  at  Washington 
between  the  sister  republics.  The  Mexicans  did  not  fear  to 
violate  the  neutrality  laws.  There  were  occasions,  however, 
when  the  Mexican-Indian  raiders  religiously  abstained  from 
crossing  the  boundary-line  under  any  circumstances  whatever. 
One  of  these  seasons  was  when  the  raiders  were  overtaken  by 
the  Texans  on  our  side,  before  they  got  to  the  river. 

When  the  Rio  Grande  is  booming,  sixty  feet  deep,  and  five 
miles  wide,  the  Mexicans  uphold  rigidly  the  neutrality  laws, 
never  making  the  slightest  attempt  to  cross  over.  At  all  other 
times,  however,  the  boundary-line  has  no  actual  existence,  as 
far  as  they  are  concerned.  After  crossing  the  river  with  the 
stolen  stock,  they  will  deliberately  camp  on  the  Mexican  bank, 
and  wait  for  the  worn-out  and  exhausted  United-States  troops 
to  come  up  ;  so  that  they  can  call  over,  and  ask  if  they  are  tired, 
and  impart  to  them  good  advice  in  bad  Spanish.  The  Mexi- 
cans heretofore  depended  on  the  law-abiding  qualities  of  the 
Americans.  Gen.  Mackenzie  put  an  end  to  all  that.  To  the 
horror  of  all  patriotic  Mexicans,  Gen.  Mackenzie  followed  a  lot 
of  Indians  across  the  Rio  Grande,  killed  a  number  of  them, 
and  brought  forty  or  fifty  over  to  this  side  of  the  river.  All 
Mexico  was  shocked.  This  meant  war  to  the  knife.  The  idea 
of  taking  away  the  Indians  who  supplied  the  Mexican  market 
with  horses  was  positively  sacrilegious.  "  Now  let  the  perfidi- 
ous colossus  of  the  North  prepare  to  tremble !  "  wrote  the  fiery 
Mexican  editor,  as  he  gulped  down  a  mess  of  beans  to  supply 
the  necessary  elan. 

"  I  perpetrated  an  amusing  fraud  on  the  people  of  both  sides 
of  the  river  when  I  was  local  editor  of  the  San  Antonio 
'  Express,' "  said  the  reporter  one  night,  as  we  lay  in  camp  on 
the  Texas  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande. 

"  How  did  you  do  it  ?  "  said  the  doctor.  "  Not  that  we  care 
to  know,  but  we  see  you  feel  bound  to  tell  it." 

"  Stir  up  the  fire,  and  hand  me  over  those  saddle-bags,  and 


MEXICAN  BRAVADO.  563 

I'll  show  you  the  documents,"  replied  the  reporter.  "  Here," 
said  he,  "is  a  cutting  from  'The  New-York  Herald'  of  Jan.  8, 
1878.  I'll  read  it  for  you. 


MEXICAN    BLUSTER. 

A    LOCAL    JOURNAL    THAT    HAS    HUMILIATED    THE    UNITED    STATES*- THE 
WHIP  THAT  CANALES  USED  UPON   THE  "BIG  DOGS"  AT  WASHINGTON. 

[From  the  San-Antonio  Express.] 

It  appears,  from  late  Mexican  papers  that  lie  before  us,  that  the  war- 
party  in  Mexico  has  gained  an  extraordinary  impetus  from  the  course 
our  government  lias  pursued  in  denying  that  Mexican  citizens  were  not 
entitled  to  the  honor  and  credit  of  murdering  Howard  and  the  other 
Gringos  at  San  Elizario.  It  is  believed  by  nearly  all  classes  of  Mexicans 
that  war  is  inevitable,  unless  the  United-States  troops  are  removed  at 
once  from  the  line  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  other  reparations  made 
without  delay.  This  may  appear  strange  to  many  who  have  been  cul- 
tivating the  delusion  that  Mexico  was  afraid  of  the  United  States ;  but 
the  following  translation  from  "The  Combate,"  the  leading  journal, 
"The  New- York  Herald"  of  Mexico,  so  to  speak,  leaves  no  room  for 
doubt. 

MEXICAN    BRAVADO. 

Says  "The  Combate,"  "We  admit  willingly  that  the  Yankees  are  an 
inferior  race  to  the  descendants  of  Cortez,  Montezuma,  and  Hidalgo, 
and  that  they  are  below  our  resentment.  They  are  even  below  our 
contempt.  Hence  Mexico  can  gain  no  honor  by  conquering  them,  and 
the  national  honor  of  Mexico  cannot  be  involved  at  all.  It  is  not  a 
fight  between  two  nations.  It  is  like  a  gentleman  whipping  a  cur  that 
has  barked  at  him.  We  must  teach  these  Gringo  dogs  good  manners, 
that's  all.  We  thought  the  height  of  Yankee  insolence  had  been  reached 
when  they  demanded  the  extradition  of  the  heroes  of  the  storming  of 
the  Rio  Grande  city  jail.  Gen.  Canales  merely  raised  his  whip,  and 
the  big  dogs  at  Washington  howled  for  mercy.  They  appealed  to  the 
generosity  of  the  great  Mexican  people,  and  that  is  an  appeal  that  is 
never  made  in  vain.  We  could  afford  to  be  magnanimous  to  a  mon- 
grel race  of  Yankees,  Niggers,  Dutch,  and  like  canaille,  that  for  twenty- 
five  years  have  cowered  before  Mexico.  We  overlooked  their  indiscre- 
tion. We  expected  they  would  not  again  dare  to  lift  their  hand  toward 
Mexico,  but  it  seems  we  were  mistaken. 


564  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  And  was  there  really  such  an  article  as  that  in  '  The  Corn- 
bate  '  ?  "  inquired  the  doctor. 

"  No,  sir ;  and  that  is  where  the  point  of  the  joke  is.  I  manu- 
factured the  whole  thing,  and  what  I  have  read  is  not  one-fourth 
of  it :  I  stretched  it  to  three-quarters  of  a  column,  all  in  the 
same  strain.  It  was  so  very  like  the  real  thing,  so  closely 
resembled  the  usual  bombastic  style  of  the  Mexican  editor, 
that  the  Mexicans  themselves  were  deceived,  and,  without 
questioning  the  authenticity  of  the  article,  many  Mexican  resi- 
dents of  the  United  States  wrote  to  the  papers,  making  excuses 
for  the  warlike  tone  of  '  The  Combate '  article,  and  denying 
that  '  The  Combate '  represented  the  people  of  Mexico  in  its 
wild  utterances.  Here  is  '  The  New- York  Herald's  '  editorial 
comment  on  the  article  :  — 

"  '  The  agents  of  Diaz,  the  present  Mexican  president,  have  been  whisper- 
ing soft  words  of  peace  and  brotherly  love  into,  the  ears  of  our  government 
at  Washington.  They  have  sought  recognition  for  their  chief,  and  their 
promises  have  been  as  liberal  as  their  persuasive  tongues  could  make  them. 
President  Diaz,  we  have  been  told,  is  to  preserve  peace  on  his  side  of  the 
border,  and  is  to  prevent  in  the  future  the  raids  by  which  our  Texan  citizens 
have  suffered  so  severely  in  the  past.  In  view  of  the  reported  assignment 
of  Mexican  regulars  to  the  Rio  Grande  for  this  praiseworthy  and  friendly 
purpose,  we  have  protested  against  any  policy  which  might  render  it  possi- 
ble for  the  two  nations  to  get  embroiled  through  the  indiscreet  act  of  some 
hot-headed  or  thoughtless  individual.  But  these  peaceful  strains  are  sud- 
denly drowned  in  a  terrible  war-cry  that  comes  up  from  the  angry  throat  of 
the  Mexican  press.  "  The  Combate,"  of  the  city  of  Mexico,  a  paper  which 
is  said  by  the  San  Antonio  (Texas) "  Express  "  to  be  "  the  leading  journal,  — 
'  The  New- York  Herald '  of  Mexico,  so  to  speak,"  —  strikes  the  United  States 
in  the  teeth  with  its  iron  gantlet,  and  dares  the  "  Gringos  "  to  the  field.  The 
Yankees,  we  are  told,  are  below  the  resentment,  even  below  the  contempt, 
of  the  descendants  of  Cortez,  Montezuma,  and  Hidalgo  :  nevertheless  the 
high-blooded  dons  must  "  teach  these  Gringo  dogs  good  manners."  Hereto- 
fore magnanimity  has  been  shown  to  the  "  mongrel  race  of  Yankees,  Niggers, 
Dutch,  and  like  canaille,  that,  for  twenty-five  years,  have  cowered  before 
Mexico ; 5>  but  now  they  must  be  whipped  into  submission. 

"'  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  our  mild  and  amiable  government  will  awake  to 
the  peril  of  the  situation.  We  must  certainly  defend  the  nation  from  Mexi- 
can invasion  and  conquest.  We  don't  want  Mexico :  we  should  be  sorry 
to  have  it  at  any  price.  The  thought  of  being  compelled  to  take  a  country 
in  which  papers  like  "  The  Combate  "  are  published  is  of  itself  alarming,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  Greasers  and  the  national  vermin.  But  poor  Gringo 


A   REVOLUTIONARY  EDITOR.  565 

must  at  least  strike  a  blow  for  his  national  autonomy,  even  against  the  war- 
like descendants  of  Cortez,  Montezuma,  and  Hidalgo.' 

"  Next  day,  and  for  several  succeeding  days,  there  appeared 
letters  in  'The  New-York  Herald,'  signed  'Many  Mexicans,' 
1  Fair  Play,'  '  Libertad,'  etc.,  all  trying  to  smooth  the  thing 
over,  and  to  prove  that  the  editor  of  '  The  Combate '  was  known 
to  them  to  be  nothing  but  a  revolutionary  lunatic.  The  follow- 
ing is  a  sample  of  them  :  — 

CHARACTER    OF  "  EL  COMBATE."— A  REVOLUTIONARY  EDITOR. 

The  following  letter  is  from  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  two  journals 
published  in  the  city  of  Mexico  :  — 

NEW  YORK,  Jan.  8,  1878. 
To  the  editor  of  the  Herald. 

Although  my  several  weeks'  visit  to  this  country  is  of  an  entirely  private 
nature,  and  I  wish  to  abstain  from  any  interference  in  the  political  matters 
of  the  country  in  which  I  have  taken  my  abode  for  some  years  past,  I  can 
still  not  allow  to  pass  some  statements  which  appeared  in  yesterday's 
"  Herald  "  unnoticed. 

In  a  correspondence  from  San  Antonio,  you  cite  a  translation  of  an  article 
published  by  "The  Combate,"  —  a  newspaper  which  sees  its  light  in  the 
capital  of  the  Mexican  Republic,  and  which  you  honor  so  extremely  by  call- 
ing it  "  The  New- York  Herald  of  Mexico ;  "  viz.,  the  foremost  representative 
of  the  Mexican  press.  As  the  article  above  mentioned  bears  throughout  an 
odious  character  against  the  United  States  and  its  citizens,  I  beg  to  state 
that  "  The  Combate  "  occupies  the  most  inferior  place  of  the  numerous  politi- 
cal newspapers  published  in  the  city  of  Mexico,  and  is,  under  no  considera- 
tion, entitled  to  the  honor  you  so  generously  confer  upon  it.  The  editor  of 
"The  Combate,"  Senor  Don  Manuel  Rivera  Cambas,  is  one  of  that  class 
of  revolutionists  who  actually  consider  permanent  revolution  their  profession. 
The  non-fulfilment  of  his  ambitious  desire  to  a  high  post  in  the  administra- 
tion has  led  him,  like  so  many  other  partisans,  into  the  file  of  opposition 
against  Gen.  Diaz,  for  whom  he  only  a  year  ago  professed  the  warmest 
friendship,  and  avowed  untiring  devotion. 

Permit  me,  in  concluding  these  lines,  to  assure  you  that  "  The  New- York 
Herald "  is  more  widely  circulated,  read,  and  cited,  in  the  Republic  of 
Mexico,  than  "  The  Combate." 

Thanking  you  most  kindly  for  the  space  accorded  in  your  paper  for  this 
statement,  I  have  the  honor  to  remain  your  most  obedient  servant, 

MAURICE  RAHDEN. 

"  Senor  Ornales,  the  Mexican  consul  at  San  Antonio,  came  to 
the  '  Daily  Express '  office,  and,  with  sorrow  and  chagrin  de- 


566  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

picted  on  his  every  feature,  said  to  the  editor,  'I  am  much 
grief  to  learn  that  ze  press  of  Mexico  is  in  ze  hands  of  ze  boys. 
It  did  not  was  formerly  so,  but  "El  Combate  "  was  not  represent 
ze  Mexican  people.' 

"The  thing  had  created  more  excitement  than  I  had  anti- 
cipated. Several  of  the  leading  papers  commented  on  it. 
The  following  letter  appeared  in  '  The  New-York  Herald '  of  the 
1 2th  of  January,  1878:  — 

RECENT    MEXICAN    BLUSTER  —WHAT    THE    CONFIDENTIAL    AGENT    OF    THE 
MEXICAN  GOVERNMENT  HAS  TO  SAY  ON  THE  THREATS  OF  -'EL  COMBATE." 

We  have  received  the  following  communication  from  Senor  Al  de 
Zamacona,  confidential  agent  at  Washington  of  the  Mexican  Govern- 
ment, on  the  subject  of  the  recently  published  transaction  of  a  bluster- 
ing anti-American  article  from  "  El  Combate  "  of  Mexico  :  — 

WASHINGTON.  D.C  .  Tan.  o,  1878. 

To  the  editor  of  the  Herald. 

I  find  in  yesterday's  "  Herald  "  an  article  taken  from  the  San-Antonio 
"  Express,"  said  to  be  a  translation  of  another  article  published  in  a  Mexi- 
can paper,  commenting  in  absurd  terms  on  the  recent  disturbances  at  San 
Elizario.  Motives  sufficient  to  produce  a  moral  certitude  lead  me  to  believe 
that  such  an  article  has  never  come  to  light  in  any  of  the  Mexican  papers.  I 
intend  to  write  on  the  subject  to  Mexico  by  the  next  steamer,  and  expect 
to  get  proof  confirming  my  opinion.  If  you,  Mr.  Editor,  would  take  the 
trouble  to  instruct  your  correspondent  at  San  Antonio  to  inquire  into  the 
matter,  I  dare  to  say  that  he  will  never  be  able  to  find  the  authentic  article 
of  which  the  gross  fanfaronade  published  in  the  "  Express  "  purports  to  be 
a  translation. 

Even  the  appearance  of  truth  has  been  so  much  disregarded  in  the  so- 
called  Mexican  article,  that  I  should  have  abstained  from  contradicting  it  in 
any  way,  had  it  not  received  the  honor  of  an  editorial  comment  in  your 
popular  paper.  The  so-called  translation  should  have  no  importance 
beyond  establishing  these  two  facts,  —  first,  that  there  is  a  persistent  and 
systematic  work  to  poison  the  sentiments  of  the  American  people  in  regard 
to  Mexico ;  and,  second,  that  those  who  have  undertaken  such  an  ungrateful 
task  are  not  very  scrupulous  in  the  selection  of  their  means. 

Should  you  feel  inclined  to  share  this  opinion  by  longer  reflection  upon 
the  article  in  question,  or  by  further  inquiries  about  its  authenticity,  you 
would  do  a  great  service  to  the  common  interests  of  our  two  republics  by 
contributing  to  defeat  the  scheme  which  seems  to  me  very  apparent  at  the 
bottom  of  this  incident.  I  remain  yours  respectfully, 

M.  DE  ZAMACONA, 
Confidential  Agent  of  the  Mexican  Government 


THE  REPORTER  INTERVIEWS  HIMSELF.        567 

"At  that  time  I  was  a  correspondent  of  'The  New-York 
Herald,'  —  described  hangings,  and  wrote  letters  about  border 
outrages  for  them.  The  same  day  on  which  the  above  letter 
appeared,  I  received  a  despatch  from  '  The  New- York  Herald,' 
instructing  me  to  interview  the  translator  of  'The  Combate' 
article,  and  report  as  to  its  authenticity.  Here  I  was  in  a  fix. 
I  was  the  guilty  party  who  concocted  the  translation.  I  had 
to  interview  myself.  I  was  a  bashful  young  man  then,  and  I 
almost  shrank  from  the  task.  I  did  not  like  to  force  myself  on 
any  one.  I  did  not  know  but  that  when  I  came  to  interview 
myself  I  might  refuse  to  an- 
swer the  questions  asked,  and 
I  hated  to  run  the  chance  of 
being  snubbed.  However,  it 
had  to  be  done.  I  did  not 
know  much  about  the  art  of 
interviewing  them,  but  I 
knew  how  to  begin.  Said  I 
(to  myself),  '  Won't  you  come 
over  to  George's  with  me,  and 
take  something  ? ' 
'  "  We  went  over.  I  said  to  THE  REPORTER  INTERV,EWS  H1MSELF. 
George  Hoerner,  '  George, 

can  we  go  into  the  back  room  ?     I  want  some  place  where  I 
can  talk  to  this  gentleman  privately.' 

"  'Vat  schentleman  ? '  said  George.  '  I  don't  see  no  schentle- 
mans.' 

"  I  was  about  to  use  some  very  strong  language  to  George 
for  making  such  an  insulting  remark ;  but,  remembering  that  I 
already  owed  him  two  dollars  and  a  half,  I  merely  said,  '  Send 
in  two  beers  ; '  and  I  walked  back,  and  took  a  seat  in  the  rear 
room.  I  took  out  my  note-book,  and  went  to  work ;  but  it  was 
a  very  unsatisfactory  interview.  We  conversed  for  two  hours, 
and  every  few  minutes  I  ordered  'two  more  beers.'  I  did  not 
feel  well  enough  to  write  to  '  The  Herald '  that  night ;  but  next 
day  I  made  my  report.  Let  me  see :  yes,  here's  a  copy  of  it. 
It  was  never  published  :  "  — 


568  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

SAN  ANTONIO,  Jan.  13,  1878. 

EDITORS  "HERALD,"  —  Yesterday  evening,  after  a  prolonged  search,  I 
discovered  the  person  who  translated  the  editorial  from  "The  Combate." 
I  found  him  a  very  genial  gentleman.  We  spent  a  pleasant,  not  to  say 
convivial  time  together ;  but  although  he  talked  in  a  very  entertaining 
way  on  various  subjects,  and  showed  by  his  conversation  that  he  pos- 
sessed a  vast  fund  of  information  on  matters  connected  with  our  Mexican 
relations,  I  failed  to  elicit  satisfactory  replies  to  my  questions.  His 
answers  were  evasive  and  peculiar.  The  following  is  a  report  of  that 
part  of  the  interview  relating  to  "  The  Combate  "  article  :  — 

REPORTER.  —  It  has  been  said,  colonel,  that  you  translated  the 
"  Gringo  "  article,  lately  published  in  the  "  Express." 

COLONEL.  —  Yes,  I  have  heard  it  intimated.  What  do  you  think  of 
the  new  scheme  to  widen  the  Alazan  ditch  ? 

REPORTER.  —  It  has  been  rumored  that  the  translation  is  not  a  transla- 
tion, but  a  fabrication. 

COLONEL.  —  The  history  of  literature  tells  of  several  such  cases,  — 
the  poems  of  Ossian,  for  instance.  I  believe  I  like  this  better  than  Mil- 
waukee beer.  One  feels  better  after  drinking  a  large  quantity  of  it. 

REPORTER.  —  It  would  have  been  a  good  joke  on  the  public,  colonel, 
if  that  article  had  really  never  appeared  in  "The  Combate,"  but  had 
been  manufactured  here  in  San  Antonio. 

COLONEL. — Yes,  a  good  joke  —  would  have  been  a  very  good  joke, 
indeed.  Queer  thing,  isn't  it,  that  a  barber  has  never  been  known  to 
cut  a  customer's  throat  ? 

I  could  not  confine  him  to  the  subject,  and  in  the  interview  elicited 
nothing  of  importance  bearing  on  it. 

"  I  do  not  seem  to  understand,"  said  the  doctor.  "  Haven't 
you  got  the  papers  mixed  somehow  ? " 

"  Oh,  no ! "  replied  the  reporter.  "  As  the  writer  of  the 
alleged  'Combate'  article,  I  did  not  want  to  acknowledge  any 
thing;  and,  as  the  representative  of  'The  New- York  Herald,' 
I  wanted  to  learn  all  the  particulars.  The  two  positions  were 
antagonistic  :  therefore  the  interview  was  a  failure." 

"It  was  truly  a  singular  interview,"  said  the  doctor. 

And  we  thought  that  was  a  very  smart  thing  for  the  doctor 
to  say. 


ILLITERATE    OFFICERS. 


569 


CHAPTER    XLI. 


MEXICAN  officer  of  to- 
day may  be  better  edu- 
cated than  the  officer 
of    a    hundred    years 
ago,    but    there     has 
been  no  improvement 
in  the  rank  and    file 
of  the  Mexican  army 
during  the  last  cen- 
_     tury.  The  majority 
of  the  officers  now 
in   the    Mexican 
army  are  educated 
men  ;  but  most  of 
the  officers  of  the 
Spanish  army  in  Texas,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  pres- 
ent century,  could  not  even 
write  their  names.     Such 
crimes  as  forging  vouchers, 
and  writing  windy  articles 
in  the  magazines,  crimes  so  common 
in  our  army,  must  have  been  almost 
unknown  in  the  Spanish  army.     The 

old  archives  show,  that,  when  the  officers  of  the  garrison  at  San 
Antonio  had  occasion  to  sign  their  names,  most  of  them  made 
their  marks.  What  model  jurymen  in  murder  cases  they  must 
have  been ! 


570  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

In  1738  the  officers  of  the  presidio  of  San  Antonio  addressed 
a  petition  to  the  viceroy  of  New  Spain,  asking  him  to  assist 
them  in  building  a  new  church.  One  who  was  not  acquainted 
with  the  Spanish  character  might  suppose  that  the  officers 
would  have  first  petitioned  for  a  schoolhouse,  or  at  least  a 
slate-pencil.  They  were  very  much  like  the  boy  who  told  his 
father  not  to  suffer  any  anxiety  about  providing  him  with  shoes 
during  the  winter,  as  he  could  manage  to  worry  along  without 
them  ;  but  he  really  needed,  and  was  obliged  to  have,  a  finger- 
ring.  So  the  Spanish  officer,  in  1738,  thought  he  was  obliged 
to  have  a  cathedral.  A  lieutenant,  who  was  as  unlettered  as 
an  empty  mail-bag,  sometimes  had  such  an  ample  name,  that,  if 
he  had  it  all  printed  on  one  visiting-card,  he  would  have  to 
double  the  pasteboard  up  to  get  it  through  a  doorway.  For 
instance :  there  was  Don  Juan  Ignacio  Rodriguez  Francisco 
Garcia  Antonio  Villareal  Castaneda,  so  it  is  written  ;  but,  as  it 
is  the  last  name  in  the  document  alluded  to,  it  may  only  have 
been  a  section  of  his  name,  and  perhaps  they  had  not  room  to 
finish  it.  He  bore  rank  as  a  lieutenant,  and  made  his  mark  ; 
the  name  being  evidently  written  by  a  clerk,  to  whom  it  was 
probably  let  out  by  contract.  Perhaps,  however,  the  illiteracy 
of  the  officers  was  not  altogether  in  the  nature  of  a  misfortune ; 
for  that  dreadful  disease  so  common  in  our  army,  and  known  as 
red  tape,  was  unknown  in  the  Spanish  army.  When  a  Spanish 
soldier  lost  a  button  from  his  uniform,  the  officers  did  not 
appoint  a  board  of  survey  to  hold  two  sessions  a  day  for  a  week, 
and  have  the  finding  of  the  board,  indorsed  by  all  the  officers, 
from  the  generalissimo  down,  printed,  and  laid  before  Congress, 
and  finally  submitted  to  a  committee  on  buttons  and  straps, 
with  power  to  refer  the  matter  to  the  president,  before  it  could 
be  ascertained  to  whose  account  the  value  of  the  missing  button 
was  to  be  charged.  In  the  Spanish  army,  instead  of  all  this 
formality,  the  captain  called  the  soldier  several  pet  names, 
knocked  his  cap  over  his  eyes,  and  kicked  him  a  few  times. 
Then  the  soldier  fastened  up  his  coat  with  a  nail,  and  there  the 
official  proceedings  ended.  On  account  of  this  prompt  way  of 
settling  matters,  and  the  aversion  of  the  authorities  to  writing 
long  official  documents,  the  records  of  the  military  movements 


MEXICAN   VOUCHERS. 


571 


in  Texas,  to  be  found  in  the  Mexican  archives,  are  very  incom- 
plete. In  one  particular  the  army  officers  had  a  simple  and 
ingenious  way  of  keeping  a  record  of  the  prisoners  intrusted 
to  them  for  safe  keeping.  When  important  prisoners  were 
consigned  to  them  for  transfer  to  distant  prisons,  the  officers 
were  held  responsible  for  the  custody 
of  these  prisoners,  and  severe  penalties 
exacted  if  they  allowed  any  to  escape. 
They  were  required  to  produce  either 
the  prisoners,  or  satisfactory  evidence 
of  their  death.  The  authorities  seem 
to  have  considered  the  prisoners'  ears 
"  satisfactory  evidence  ; "  for  we  read 
in  the  diary  of  Lieut.  M.  Muzquiz,  who 
was  sent  by  the  commanding  general, 
Pedro  Nava,  to  capture  Philip  Nolan 
and  party,  — 

March  i,  1801. 

Nolan's  negroes  asked  permission  to  bury 
their  master ;  which  I  granted,  after  causing 
his  ears  to  be  cut  off,  in  order  to  send  them, 
with  other  vouchers,  to  the  governor. 

Imagine  the  governor's  private  secre- 
tary filing  away  the  ears  among  the 
state  archives !  When  the  survivors 
of  the  Santa  Fe  expedition,  captured 
by  the  Mexicans,  under  Gov.  Arnijo,  in 
1841,  were  marched  from  Santa  Fe  to 
the  city  of  Mexico,  the  mortuary  report 
furnished  by  the  officer  in  charge,  on  MEXICAN  VOUCHERS. 

his  arrival  in  the  city  of  Mexico,  was 

not  elaborate  in  the  matter  of  details.  Neither  cause  of  death, 
age,  nor  place  of  nativity,  was  given.  The  "vouchers"  repre- 
senting the  deceased  were  strung  on  a  strip  of  rawhide. 

At  the  first  glance  one  would  suppose  that  the  production  of 
a  man's  ears  would  be  pretty  satisfactory  evidence  that  the 
man  was  dead,  but  this  was  not  always  the  case.  There  is  a 
well-authenticated  case  of  a  Spanish  officer,  Lieut.  Jose  Maria 


572  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Vidal,  who  was  intrusted  with  the  transportation  of  some  state 
prisoners  from  San  Antonio  to  Monterey.  Among  them  was  a 
Spanish  officer  of  rank,  who  well  knew  that  his  arrival  in  Mon- 
terey would  be  followed  by  a  funeral  in  his  family,  of  which  he 
was  the  only  surviving  member.  Having  money  at  his  dis- 
posal, he  succeeded  in  tempting  the  officer  in  charge  to  connive 
at  his  escape.  How  he  could  manage  to  let  the  distinguished 
prisoner  off,  and  yet  be  able  to  produce  the  vouchers,  was  what 
troubled  the  officer.  Fortunately  they  met  a  solitary  traveller 
on  the  road.  The  officer  and  the  distinguished  prisoner  con- 
ferred together :  and  the  result  of  the  conference  was,  that  next 
morning  both  the  stranger  and  the  distinguished  prisoner  were 
missing ;  but  the  officer  had  his  vouchers  all  correct  on  the 
rawhide  string.  On  arriving  at  Monterey,  he  turned  over  the 
surviving  prisoners,  and  the  ears  of  those  who  had  died  on 
the  way.  The  fraud  was  not  suspected,  but  afterwards  the 
supposed-to-be-dead  prisoner  was  seen  and  recognized.  Lieut. 
Vidal  was  arrested  at  San  Antonio,  and  was  ordered  to  Mon- 
terey for  trial.  He  attempted  to  bribe  the  officer  who  had  him 
in  charge  to  play  the  same  old  trick  that  he  had  played ;  but  the 
officer  refused,  not  because  he  was  too  honest  to  accept  a  bribe, 
but  because  he  did  not  expect  that  they  would  meet  with  any 
traveller  who  possessed  ears  the  size  and  color  of  those  of 
Vidal,  and  the  authorities  had  begun  to  be  very  particular  about 
examining  the  vouchers.  Vidal,  knowing  that  it  was  a  desper- 
ate case,  cut  off  his  own  ears.  This  satisfied  the  officer,  who, 
when  he  arrived  at  Monterey,  reported  Vidal  dead,  and  handed 
in  his  ears,  which  were  recognized  on  account  of  their  size. 

Although  the  young  officers  could  not  write  much,  the  old 
generals  could  usually  write  their  names,  or  something  that 
represented  names. 

When  a  person  of  even  more  than  ordinary  intelligence  ex- 
amines, for  the  first  time,  the  signatures  attached  to  some  of 
the  old  Spanish  archives  at  San  Antonio,  he  is  very  much 
puzzled.  Each  signature  is  accompanied  by  an  elaborate  and 
complicated  flourish  that  is  utterly  unlike  any  thing  that  he  has 
ever  seen  before,  and  which  is  more  in  the  nature  of  a  Chinese 
puzzle  than  any  thing  else. 


THE  SPANISH  OFFICIAL.  573 

One  might  suppose  that  the  Spanish  official  of  a  century 
ago  was  never  allowed  to  sign  his  name,  except  when  he  was 
suffering  from  delirium  tremens.  Another  explanation  for  the 
Spanish  official  using  so  much  time  and  writing-material  is, 
that  both  were  paid  for  by  the  government,  and  hence  it  was  a 
matter  of  indifference  to  him  how  much  of  them  he  used. 
Some  of  the  scrawls,  or  flourishes,  look  as  if  it  was  impossible 
for  one  man  to  have  made  them,  unless  some  other  man  was 
pounding  him  on  the  back  while  he  wrote,  or  else  the  writer, 
whenever  he  was  required  to  sign  his  name,  mounted  a  buck- 
ing-pony, and  wrote  his  name  while  the  animal  was  trying  to 
stand  on  its  head.  The  official's  name  was  written  without  any 
care  whatever ;  but  the  complicated  flourish,  or  scrawl,  was 
probably  intended  to  be  the  proof  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
signature,  for  it  was  almost  impossible  for  anybody  else  to 
write  it.  A  mere  glance  at  the  flourish  was  sufficient  fdr  iden- 
tification to  most  of  the  Mexicans,  to  whom  writing  was  one  of 
the  lost  arts. 

I  have  before  me  an  ancient  archive,  the  royal  decree  chan- 
ging the  status  and  name  of  the  town  of  Fernando  to  a  city, 
under  the  present  name,  San  Antonio,  and  making  it  military 
headquarters.  The  document  bears  date  of  Nov.  18,  1811,  and 
is  adorned  with  the  historic  signatures  of  Salcedo,  Herrera, 
Bracho,  Veramendi,  and  Zambramo.  The  body  of  the  docu- 
ment, which  is  on  coarse  but  serviceable  paper,  is  written  in  a 
remarkably  clear  and  even  style  of  penmanship ;  and  it  bears 
the  stamp  of  Carlos  IV.,  king  of  Spain. 

Gov.  Salcedo,  whose  head,  stuck  on  a  pole,  subsequently 
adorned  the  Military  Plaza  of  San  Antonio,  has  the  most 
modest  signature  of  the  lot,  as  will  .be  seen  by  a  glance  at 
the  accompanying  facsimile  of  a  part  of  the  decree  above  re- 
ferred to. 

Don  Vicinte  Travieso  appears  to  have  taken  great  pains  in 
writing  his  name.  If  the  affairs  of  Spain  were  as  complicated 
as  the  signature  of  Don  Travieso,  it  is  no  wonder  that  Spain 
lost  her  American  possessions.  If  Travieso  wrote  in  that  way 
when  he  was  sober,  I  would  like  to  see  what  his  signature  was 
like  when  he  was  otherwise. 


574 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


,  REA- 

ES.,  ANOS  DS  MIL  OCI-IOCIEN- 


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&gg  "Jm&Z  *£***& 

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^^rsf^^^l 

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t  IS.  «i  ^^  *'Sf^' 


AN  ANCIENT  ARCHIVE. 


575 


q 
' 


<r 


576  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Francisco  Veramendi,  whose  daughter,  Ursula,  married  James 
Bowie,  who  fell  in  the  Alamo,  also  wrote  with  a  grand  flourish. 
If  his  affairs  were  as  flourishing  as  his  signature  seems  to 
indicate,  he  must  have  been  in  clover  when  he  signed  his  name. 

"  Let  us  have  some  more  of  your  military  experience,"  said 
the  doctor  to  the  reporter  one  evening,  as  we  lay  in  camp,  rest- 
ing from  the  fatigue  of  a  very  hearty  supper  of  canned  beef, 
biscuit,  and  straight  coffee. 

"  If  you  really  want  to  hear  it,  I  can  narrate  some  really 
thrilling  military  adventures  that  I  have  been  engaged  in." 

"  Go  on,"  said  the  doctor  ;  "  but  we  hope  you  will  not  recount 
such  another  bloody  battle  as  that  of  Norris's  Bridge." 

"  From  my  earliest  years,"  said  the  reporter,  "  I  possessed 
an  aggressive  disposition.  I  was  renowned  for  deeds  of  prowess 
at  a  very  tender  age.  When  I  was  nine  years  old  I  met  the 
Mexican  foe  for  the  first  time  in  deadly  conflict.  Between 
the  Mexican  boys,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  San  Pedro  Creek, 
and  the  American  boys,  on  the  east  side,  there  was  war  all  the 
time.  I  was  a  San  Antonio  schoolboy  then.  The  schoolhouse 
was  a  small  adobe  building  on  Commerce  Street.  It  has  long 
since  disappeared,  and  a  row  of  fine  stores  now  occupies  the 
site  of  the  old  schoolhouse  and  grounds.  During  recess  it  was 
the  custom  of  us  overworked  youths  to  repair  to  the  shady 
groves  that  skirted  the  flowery  banks  of  the  classic  San  Anto- 
nio River  to  seek  relaxation,  and  rest  our  weary  brains.  The 
relaxation  consisted,  for  the  most  part,  in  bombarding  with 
slings  the  residences  of  the  peaceable  citizens  on  the  opposite 
bank.  The  rest  of  the  time  was  completely  taken  up  in  carry- 
ing on  an  artillery  duel  with  the  seekers  after  knowledge  who 
attended  an  opposition  free  school,  also  on  the  opposite  bank 
of  the  classic  stream.  The  San  Antonio  boy  of  that  period 
was  much  more  vivacious  than  his  successors  of  the  present 
day.  He  lived  in  a  chronic  state  of  warfare  with  the  Mexican 
boys,  the  police,  and  other  public  enemies.  The  boy  of  the 
present  day  uses  a  '  nigger-shooter '  in  making  himself  an  object 
of  veneration  to  everybody  who  lives  within  range.  The  boy 
who  made  life  and  property  unsafe  in  1857  would  have  scorned 
such  a  plaything.  His  toy  was  the  sling,  —  not  the  kind  of 


THE  REPORTER  IN  ARMS  AGAIN.  577 

sling  that  men  get  slewed  with,  but  a  weapon  identical  with 
the  one  with  which  David  made  such  an  impression  on  Goliath. 
It  had  long  strings,  and  could  create  ruin  and  desolation  over 
a  circle  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  taking  the  boy  motor  as  the 
centre  point.  It  carried  a  projectile  about  the  size  of  a  bottle 
of  mucilage.  After  five  or  six  skilled  performers  had  serenaded 
a  house  for  a  few  minutes,  it  was  customary  for  the  owner  to 
have  it  reshingled.  Those  boys  were  the  friends  of  the  work- 
ingmen. 

"  It  was  at  recess,  about  the  middle  of  a  very  warm  day  ;  but 
the  climate  had  no  depressing  effect  on  the  boy  with  a  sling. 
Instigated,  no  doubt,  by  the  Devil,  one  of  the  boys  suggested 
that  the  residence  of  Mr.  Schleicher,  on  the  bluff  bank  of  the 
creek,  was  within  easy  range.  Another  one  of  the  gentle  lads, 
whose  name  modesty  prevents  me  from  parading  before  the 
public,  prepared  a  sling,  and,  merely  out  of  curiosity  to  see  if 
the  building  was  within  range,  propelled  a  bowlder  in  that 
direction.  A  servant-girl  was  carrying  the  soup  for  dinner 
across  the  yard,  when  the  missile  bounded  over  her  head,  and 
passed  on  into  the  house,  through  a  window  that  some  careless 
person  had  forgotten  to  open.  The  soup  was  dropped  in  a 
hurry,  and  the  frightened  female  fled  into  the  interior  of  the 
castle. 

"In  a  few  minutes  a  large,  portly  gentleman,  in  his  shirt- 
sleeves, and  armed  with  a  palm-leaf  fan,  appeared  on  the 
opposite  bluff.  He  made  a  few  appropriate  remarks  somewhat 
tinged  with  bitterness  and  invective.  He  called  his  hearers 
'young  vagabonds.'  He  made  a  most  impassioned  appeal,  and 
promised  to  cultivate  closer  relations  if  we  gave  him  any 
further  opportunity. 

"  Now,  the  prejudice  against  Germans  existed  even  at  that 
time.  The  speaker  was  continually  interrupted  by  remarks 
from  the  audience,  which  reflected  somewhat  on  the  nationality 
of  the  orator,  and  on  his  physical  peculiarities.  But  the  San 
Antonio  boy  of  that  period  was  never  idle.  A  messenger  had 
been  sent  hurriedly  to  procure  ammunition.  As  soon  as  it 
arrived,  those  boys  with  overworked  brains  settled  down  to 
steady  work.  Shingles  flew  from  the  roof,  branches  of  trees 

37 


578  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG.    ' 

were  cut  off,  and,  having  at  last  got  the  range,  of  the  speaker, 
he  withdrew. 

"There  was  delirious  joy  at  the  defeat  of  the  German.  But 
the  exultation  was  premature ;  for  in  a  few  minutes  Mr. 
Schleicher  came  out  again,  with  a  pistol  in  his  hand.  This 
was  a  feature  of  the  programme  about  which  we  had  not  been 
consulted.  He  raised  the  pistol,  and  deliberately  fired  across 
the  river  toward  us.  I  have  no  idea  that  he  fired  with  the  inten- 
tion of  hitting  anybody ;  but  the  besieging  army  was  harassed 
with  doubts  on  that  subject,  and  fell  back  behind  a  stone  wall, 
very  much  shocked  at  the  utter  disregard  of  law  displayed  by 
the  corpulent  foreigner.  Just  then  the  bell  rang  to  warn  the 
recuperated  youths  to  resume  their  studies.  They  returned  to 
the  schoolhouse  in  a  pensive  mood.  As  if  by  inspiration,  it 
occurred  to  me  that  the  enemy  might  make  a  flank  movement 
over  Commerce-street  Bridge,  and  disturb  us  in  our  studies. 
It  was  a  singular  coincidence,  that  it  flashed  simultaneously 
over  my  memory  that  I  had  been  earnestly  requested  to  come 
home  at  recess,  and  that  there  was  no  time  to  lose,  as  Schleicher 
might  put  in  an  appearance  at  any  minute.  Just  as  I  got  out- 
side of  the  gate,  his  tall  form  loomed  up  on  the  bridge.  The 
subsequent  proceedings  are  described  by  an  eye-witness  as 
being  particularly  interesting.  Schleicher  made  a  speech  to 
me.  He  depicted  in  glowing  terms  the  necessity  of  frontier 
protection  against  savage  tribes  of  schoolboys,  and  intimated 
that  his  policy  in  the  future  would  be  to  cross  over,  pursue  the 
banditti  to  their  hiding-places,  and  chastise  them  severely ; 
also  that  he  would  hold  the  Mexican  Government  (the  school- 
teacher) responsible  for  any  further  outrages.  The  speech 
created  a  profound  impression.  From  that  time  on,  the 
Schleicher  mansion  was  neglected  in  the  diurnal  target- 
practice." 

"  You  must  have  mistaken  our  meaning  when  we  asked  you 
for  a  narration  of  some  of  your  military  experience,"  said  the 
doctor.  "If  you  ever  saw  any  real  hard  service,  let  us  hear 
from  you." 

"  Hard  service  !  "  said  the  reporter  with  a  sneer :  "  I  should 
think  so.  I  belonged  to  the  Alamo  Rifles  some  years  ago. 


REAL  HARD  SERVICES.  579 

Those  were  the  days,  too,  that  tried  men's  souls ;  for  v/e  had  to 
run  to  fires,  and  guard  property.  It  warms  an  old  veteran's 
heart  to  fight  his  battles  o'er  again.  Here  goes.  Let  the 
women  and  children,  and  all  other  non-combatants,  be  removed 
ten  miles  to  the  rear.  This  battery  is  about  to  open  fire. 

"  In  the  first  place,  allow  me  to  straighten  out  a  little  point 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  Shortly  after  I  had  ceased  to 
assist  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  in  destroying  the  government,  not 
having  had  enough  of  war,  I  joined  the  Alamo  Rifles.  We 
used  to  keep  the  people  awake  with  a  drum  and  fife,  drilling  in 
a  large  room  in  the  rear  of  the  Vance  House.  After  we  had 
used  that  locality  for  some  time,  we  moved  our  armory  to 
another  part  of  the  city.  Some  civilian  (no  doubt,  some  fellow 
who  did  not  love  the  tented  field  and  its  dangers)  put  a  low, 
scurrilous  item  in  'The  San-Antonio  Herald,'  to  the  effect 
that  the  Alamo  Rifles  had  changed  their  armory  because  there 
was  a  biting-dog  near  the  place  in  which  they  used  to  drill. 
Other  non-military  men  added  to  this  vile  slander  the  state- 
ment, that,  in  our  new  armory,  we  paid  ten  dollars  more  rent 
because  there  was  no  biting-dog  within  one  hundred  yards  of 
our  rendezvous.  This  went  the  rounds,  and  is-  going  to  become 
a  part  of  the  military  history  of  the  country,  unless  it  is  cor- 
rected now,  while  there  are  a  few  surviving  old  warriors  by 
whom  the  truth  can  be  established. 

"  Our  reason  for  changing  the  location  of  our  armory  was  an 
entirely  different  one.  Let  the  truth  of  history  be  vindicated. 
We  made  the  change  because  there  was  not  a  saloon  within  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  -where  we  co.uld  get  credit,  and  we  did  not 
care  to  march  half  a  mile  for  a  glass  of  beer.  Underneath  our 
new  armory  there  was  a  beer-saloon,  and  the  proprietor  could 
take  the  rent  out  of  what  we  owed  him  for  the  beer.  That 
changing  of  the  armory  was  a  necessity,  a  strategic  move,  that 
showed  military  genius  of  the  loftiest  order. 

"When  I  sometimes  muse  over  the  hardships  we  had  to 
undergo,  and  then  read  what  an  easy  time  soldiers  have  of  it 
nowadays,  it  makes  me  smile  the  pensivest  kind  of  a  smile. 

"  The  campaign  of  1872  will  long  be  remembered  by  the  old 
veterans  of  the  Alamo  Rifles.  It  seemed  to  me  that  we  had 


580  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

to  double-quick  away  out  into  the  suburbs  of  the  town,  to  see 
that  nobody  but  the  owner  carried  off  a  burning  haystack,  or  a 
chimney  on  fire,  about  once  every  few  weeks,  and  usually  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Occasionally  we  would  have  the 
luck  to  be  called  out  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  It  was  our 
duty  to  scare  anybody,  if  only  the  small  boy  who  tried  to  burst 
the  hose  by  standing  on  it  without  the  countersign  from  the 
brigadier-general  in  command.  Those  were  stirring  times.  It 
stirs  the  blood  of  age  just  to  think  of  them. 

"  I  am  told  that  a  proposition  has  been  made  to  build  a 
monument  to  the  heroes  of  the  Alamo.  As  soon  as  enough 
assets  have  flowed  into  the  coffers  of  the  memorial  association 
from  the  patriotic  citizens,  I  am  going  to  engage  an  artist  to 
get  up  a  design  for  the  monument.  Some  old  fogies  will  want 
statues  of  Travis  and  Crockett  cheering  on  their  men,  but  my 
idea  is  much  better.  I  am  going  to  have  the  figure  on  the 
monument  represent  an  Alamo  riflist  in  full  uniform  :  in  fact, 
I  am  going  to  have  a  whole  group  commemorative  of  a  thrilling 
incident  of  the  campaign  of  1872.  In  the  month  of  July  there 
was  an  immense  conflagration  of  a  Mexican  jacal  on  the  west 
side  of  the  San  Pedro.  Among  the  articles  rescued  from  the 
burning  summer-palace  of  the  Aztec  was  a  broken-legged  chair, 
and  a  cheap  picture  of  St.  Anthony,' etc.  These  precious  relics 
were  carried  out  into  the  street,  and  an  Alamo  riflist,  with  glit- 
tering bayonet,  put  on  guard  over  them,  to  prevent  anybody 
from  carrying  them  off.  In  a  few  minutes  the  steam  fire- 
engine  had  washed  the  burning  shanty  out  of  existence,  and 
had  formed  a  large  lake  on  its  site.  The  proprietress  of  the 
picture  and  crippled  chair,  an  aged  Mexican  of  ninety-nine 
summers,  wanted  to  take  off  her  chattels ;  but  the  Alamo  riflist 
refused  to  obey  any  order  that  did  not  come  from  his  superior 
officer,  who  had  taken  a  furlough  in  a  neighboring  saloon,  where 
the  firemen  were  celebrating  their  victory  over  the  fire-fiend. 
The  old  Mexican  woman,  not  being  well  posted  about  military 
jurisprudence,  attempted  to  rescue  her  property ;  but  the  stern 
sentinel  kept  her  at  bay  with  his  bayonet.  The  mayor  of  the 
city,  and  several  other  influential  men,  begged  him  on  their 
knees  to  relax  his  discipline,  so  that  the  old  woman  could  get 


GRIM-VISAGED    WAR. 


581 


her  property;  but  all  the  answer  he  made  was  to  polish  his 
bayonet  on  his  sleeve,  hinting  thereby  that  he  was  getting 
ready  to  introduce  it  into  somebody.  Now,  my  idea  is,  to  have 
the  statue  on  the  proposed  Alamo  monument  represent  the 
Alamo  riflist,  with  one  foot  on  the  chair,  his  bayonet  levelled 


A    SUGGESTION. 


at  the  breast  of  the  hireling  Mexican  foe,  who  begs  for  mercy 
and  the  other  things. 

"  A  great  many  of  our  citizens  were  not  partial  to  the  Alamo 
Rifles.  The  idea  of  their  being  present  at  fires  was  displeasing 
to  some  of  our  merchants,  who  hinted  that  the  only  thing  that 
kept  the  company  together  was  the  hope  of  being  called  to 
stand  guard  over  the  contents  of  liquor  and  cigar  stores ;  and 
some  said  that  the  company  was  the  cause  of  the  high  rates 
charged  by  insurance  companies.  The  Alamo  Rifles  applied 
to  the  city  council  for  thirty  dollars  a  month  alimony.  The 


582  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

owner  of  the  armory  was  beginning  to  be  unpleasa'nt  about 
back  rent.  The  city  council  said  they  could  not  conscien- 
tiously vote  us  the  money.  Just  about  this  time  a  grocery- 
store  on  the  Alamo  Plaza  did  actually  catch  fire.  As  if  by 
magic,  the  whole  neighborhood  glistened  with  bayonets  and 
uniforms.  Hundreds  of  boxes  of  cigars,  whiskey  by  the  barrel, 
and  all  kinds  of  liquors,  were  carried  across  the  street  to  a 
vacant  lot.  The  riflists  formed  a  Macedonian  phalanx  of  glit- 
tering steel  around  these  provisions,  and  a  battery  of  artillery 
at  close  range  would  not  have  impressed  them.  The  owner  of 
the  goods  started  the  rumor  that  there  were  two  thousand 
pounds  of  blasting-powder  in  the  cellar;  but  the  boys  saw 
through  it,  and  kept  on  lighting  twenty-cent  cigars,  and  sam- 
pling a  high-priced  article  of  whiskey.  Unfortunately  my  posi- 
tion was  in  a  bed  of  large  red  ants.  As  it  was  night,  there  was 
not  sufficient  light  for  me  to  find  this  out  sooner  than  I  did ; 
and,  as  it  was  summer,  I  was  not  burdened  with  underwear. 
The  ants  found  this  out :  so  did  I.  They  accompanied  me  all 
the  way,  so  to  speak ;  for  I  retired  in  good  but  rapid  order  to 
my  home,  where  I  removed  about  twenty-five  of  the  enemy 
with  a  pair  of  old  bullet-moulds.  I  had  seen  as  much  of  grim- 
visaged  war  as  was  good  for  my  health.  I  resigned,  but  I 
couldn't  use  my  legs  fluently  for  several  days.  There  was 
some  talk  of  trying  me  by  court-martial,  and  having  me  shot, 
for  having  left  the  whiskey  and  cigars  without  orders  ;  but  some 
of  the  staff-officers  had  been  near  that  same  ant-bed,  and  had 
to  be  taken  home  in  wheelbarrows  :  hence  I  was  not  shot.  But 
I  might  have  been. 

"  There  it  is  again  !  When  an  old  soldier  gets  to  telling 
about  his  battles  and  sufferings,  there  is  no  stopping  him." 

The  reporter  gave  us  many  other  leaves  from  his  biography. 
His  war  experience  lulled  us  to  sleep  every  night  for  a  month. 
After  supper,  when  we  would  be  encamped  in  some  sheltered 
spot,  and  when,  tired  and  sleepy,  we  would  stretch  ourselves  on 
our  buffalo  robes,  the  conversation  usually  turned  on  war ;  and 
then  the  reporter  was  sure  to  start  a  recital  of  one  of  his  many 
bloody  engagements,  and  in  a  few  moments  we  were  asleep, 
and  dreaming  of  carnage. 


LUXURY  OF  SLEEP.— WILD  HORSES.  583 

The  luxury  of  these  sleeps  in  the  open  air  I  shall  never 
forget.  "  Sleep  makes  us  all  pachas,"  as  the  Eastern  proverb 
runs  ;  but  only  those  who  have  slept  out  of  doors  in  Western 
Texas  can  understand  the  full  meaning  of  the  proverb.  When 
going  to  sleep  on  the  prairie,  you  are  not  distressed  by  thoughts 
of  to-morrow.  Therein  lies  the  luxury  and  pleasure  of  a  buffalo- 
robe  couch,  away  from  the  corroding  cares  and  jjarassing  re- 
straint of  an  effete  civilization.  As  you  lie  down,  and  turn  your 
gaze  on  the  star-spangled  firmament  above,  you  are  not  dis- 
tressed by  the  thought  of  having  to  get  up  early,  that  you  may 
have  time  to  get  shaved  before  going  to  the  office.  No  milk- 
man, with  a  sleep-destroying  bell,  wakes  you  up  at  an  early- 
worm  hour  in  the  morning ;  and  at  no  season  of  the  year,  as 
you  go  to  sleep  with  your  feet  to  the  camp-fire,  does  the 
thought  that  to-morrow  will  be  the  first  of  the  month  trouble 
you.  You  are  unmoved  by  those  things  regarding  which  the 
rest  of  the  terraefilial  race  worry  and  fuss  and  fret  themselves. 

One  morning  about  daybreak,  as  we  lay  in  camp  on  the 
bank  of  a  creek,  we  observed  a  herd  of  about  twenty  horses, 
led  by  a  magnificent  black  stallion,  come  down  the  opposite 
bank,  and  go  into  the  water  to  drink.  There  would  not  have 
been  to  us  any  thing  remarkable  in  this  circumstance,  had  we 
not  noticed,  as  the  horses  played  around  in  the  water,  that 
none  of  them  was  branded.  They  were  wild  horses, — the  first 
we  had  ever  seen.  A  noise  made  by  the  doctor  startled  them. 
The  leader  gave  a  snort  of  alarm  ;  and  in  a  moment  all  the 
horses  in  the  herd  stood  in  line,  with  their  heads  towards  us. 
For  a  second  they  stood  still ;  then,  apparently  in  obedience  to 
orders  given  by  their  leader,  they  dashed  up  the  steep  bank, 
the  black  stallion  taking  position  in  the  rear.  There  are  very 
few  wild  horses  in  Texas  now,  but  some  men  still  continue  to 
make  a  living  by  hunting  and  capturing  them. 

I  have  met  old  men  who  told  me,  that,  when  Americans  first 
began  to  settle  in  Texas,  immense  herds  of  wild  horses  were 
to  be  found  all  over  the  western  portion  of  the  State.  Com- 
panies of  men  were  organized  to  hunt  the  horses.  These  men 
were  called  mustangers.  They  drove  the  horses  into  strongly 
built  pens.  Another  mode  of  capturing  them  was  called 


584  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  walking  them  down."  The  hunters  followed  them  for  several 
days,  driving  them  in  a  circle,  and  giving  them  no  time  to  eat, 
drink,  or  rest.  The  result  of  this  was,  that  the  horses  thus 
pursued  became  so  fatigued  that  they  were  finally  lassoed  with 
comparative  ease.  To  accomplish  this,  the  hunters  changed 
horses  at  points  where,  by  previous  arrangements,  their  com- 
panions had^resh  saddle-horses  in  waiting.  Juan  Gonzales,  a 
Mexican,  near  Fort  Concho,  Tex.,  is  said  to  be  the  champion 
lassoer  of  the  world.  He  throws  a  lasso  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  feet  in  length  with  the  precision  of  a  skilled  marks- 
man firing  a  rifle-ball. 

The  buffalo  is  also  becoming  scarce  in  Texas.  Forty  years 
ago  the  plains  were  covered  with  them.  In  the  spring  they 
went  North,  returning  to  Texas  with  the  first  signs  of  winter. 
Stockmen,  with  their  herds  of  cattle,  have  driven  them  farther 
west  every  year.  Millions  of  them  have  been  killed  for  their 
skins,  the  carcasses  being  left  to  the  buzzards.  A  man  named 
Long,  of  Fort  Griffin,  is  said  to  have  killed  three  thousand  buf- 
falo in  one  winter ;  and  Big  Jim  White,  a  professional  buffalo- 
hunter,  killed  eight  hundred  in  one  month.  Those  who  hunt 
the  buffalo  for  the  hide  go  in  parties.  Each  member  of  the 
party  has  special  duties.  Some  drive  the  wagons,  some  cook, 
others  skin  the  slain  animals ;  and  the  best  marksmen  have 
nothing  to  do  but  shoot. 

The  killer,  as  he  is  called,  rides  as  near  to  the  herd  as  he 
can  without  alarming  the  buffalo.  Then  he  dismounts,  and 
creeps  to  within  rifle-shot.  He  first  shoots  the  leader  of  the 
herd  if  possible.  If  he  is  successful  in  killing  the  leader,  the 
others  remain  until  probably  forty  or  fifty  of  them  are  killed, 
before  the  herd  stampedes. 

It  is  a  shame  that  Congress  does  not  enact  a  law  prohibit- 
ing this  wholesale  slaughter  of  a  useful  and  valuable  animal. 
The  day  is  not  far  distant  when  the  American  bison  will  be 
extinct.  The  buffalo,  and  his  fellow-nomad  the  Indian,  must 
inevitably  make  way  for  the  advancing  hosts  of  white  men 
who  are  steadily  and  irresistibly  moving  westward. 

We  left  the  Rio  Grande  at  Eagle  Pass,  and  turned  our 
faces  north-east.  For  ten  days  we  rode  through  a  country 


THROWING    THE    LASSO. 


THE  MEXICAN  PASTOR.  585 

that  is  very  sparsely  settled.  Only  an  occasional  sheep-camp 
or  cattle-ranch  indicated  that  we  were  in  an  inhabited  country. 
Through  the  Mexican  town  of  Dolores,  past  Fort  Clark,  over 
the  Las  Moras  hills,  through  canyons,  into  mesquite  chaparrals, 
and  over  high  plateaus,  we  wended  our  way  northward  at  the 
rate  of  about  thirty  miles  a  day.  There  were  days,  that,  beyond 
those  of  our  own  party,  we  did  not  see  a  human  face.  We 
were  delighted  beyond  measure  when  we  met  any  one  ;  and  we 
would  stop  and  squander  half  a  day,  enjoying  the  most  common- 
place conversation  with  the  stranger. 

I  remember  one  poor,  ignorant  Mexican  pastor  (shepherd) 
who  must  have  thought  we  were  mad.  We  met  him  after  hav- 
ing been  two  days  without  seeing  a  stranger.  When  I  saw  him 
riding  along,  I  was  delighted.  I  said  to  myself,  "  Now,  I'$ 
enjoy  a  talk  with  this  man  ;  for  he  is,  no  doubt,  a  simple, 
honest  stockman,  and  will  not  hurl  puns  at  me,  as  the  doctor 
does,  nor  give  his  war  experiences  after  the  manner  of  the 
reporter."  As  I  approached  him,  I  saw  he  was  a  Mexican.  I 
shook  hands  with  him  in  a  very  cordial  manner;  and  I  said, 
"Buenos  dias."  That  was  all  of  the  Mexican  language  I  knew 
then. 

He,  replying  in  a  quiet  and  conciliatory  tone  of  voice,  said, 
"Doggonit."  That  was  all  of  the  English  he  knew.  He  said  it 
as  if  he  were  proud  of  knowing  so  much  of  our  beautiful  and 
expressive  language. 

We  stood  and  talked,  bowed,  smiled,  and  gesticulated  for 
an  hour,  the  Mexican  doing  the  same.  He  did  not  understand 
a  word  of  what  we  said  ;  and  we  did  not  understand  what  he 
said,  except  the  words  above  quoted,  which  he  repeated  several 
times,  being  apparently  possessed  with  the  idea,  that,  if  there 
was  any  more  of  the  English  language,  it  could  only  be  some 
auxiliary  terms  not  necessary  to  the  carrying-on  of  a  friendly 
conversation. 

No  matter  how  ignorant  or  commonplace  the  people  were 
whom  we  met,  we  were  glad  of  their  society.  They  were  not 
all,  by  any  means,  either  ignorant  or  commonplace. 

It  is  wonderful  how  many  educated  men,  and  men  of  rare 
talents  and  attainments,  are  to  be  met  in  sheep-camps  and 


586  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

cattle-ranches  on  the  plains  of  Western  Texas.  Love  of  adven- 
ture, pursuit  of  health,  and  poverty  hand  in  hand  with  pride, 
are  some  of  the  causes  that  bring  these  men  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  I  have  seen  an  ex-student  of  Oxford  University  butch- 
ering a  sheep  in  the  Nueces  valley.  I  met  the  son  of  a  member 
of  the  British  Parliament  driving  a  team  in  Uvalde  County. 
I  know  a  man,  now  living  in  a  tent,  and  herding  five  hundred 
sheep  on  the  prairie,  who  ten  years  ago  was  editor  of  a 
prominent  Parisian  newspaper,  and  one  of  the  popular  society 
men  of  the  gayest  capital  in  Europe.  Digging  around  the  roots 
of  his  grape-vines  in  Kendall  County,  a  certain  German  baron 
finds  more  satisfaction  and  profit  than  he  could  in  the  land  of 
his  fathers. 

The  following  incident  will  illustrate  the  facts  stated  above :  — 
When  we  were  in  Fort  Clark  we  met  a  tramp.  He  was 
about  thirty  years  of  age.  He  wore  shoes  down  at  the  heel 
and  broken  on  the  sides.  His  hair  was  long,  and  bore  traces 
of  recent  contact  with  a  haystack.  His  clothes  were  seedy, 
and  he  smelled  like  a  livery-stable.  He  differed  but  little  from 
the  ordinary  tramp  who  spends  his  leisure  in  walking  from  town 
to  town,  in  resting  his  shoulders  against  corners,  and  in  lying 
on  his  back  by  the  roadside,  smoking  a  short  clay  pipe.  I 
would  have  passed  him  unnoticed,  had  he  not  approached  me, 
and  asked  me  for  means  to  procure  bread  and  a  place  of  shelter. 
As  I  stopped  to  hand  him  a  silver  coin,  I  looked  in  his  face, 
and  recognized  the  wreck  of  an  old  friend  and  school-fellow.  I 
had  known  him  fifteen  years  before.  Then  he  wore  fashionable 
clothes,  and  parted  his  hair  in  an  equatorial  way.  We,  his  con- 
temporaries, used  to  envy  him  ;  and  when,  with  a  twitch  of  his 
eyebrow,  he  let  his  eyeglass  drop  to  the  end  of  the  cord  that 
held  it,  and,  referring  to  an  acquaintance,  said,  "  Cawn't  expect 
a  fellow  to  know  such  a  cad  as  that,  you  know ;  can't  afford  it, 
by  Jove  !  "  we  were  filled  with  unutterable  awe,  and  looked 
on  him  as  on  one  inspired.  Before  we,  his  equals  in  age,  had 
ceased  to  take  pleasure  in  marbles,  he  was  staggering,  so  to 
speak,  under  the  weight  of  the  experience  he  had  gained  in  the 
playing  of  countless  games  of  billiards.  When  we  were  sip- 
ping our  matutinal  coffee  under  the  paternal  roof,  he  was 


THE   TRAMP. 


587 


bracing  up  on  B.  and  S.  down  at  the  Essex  arms.  A  certain 
bonhomie  and  geniality  of  disposition,  natural  to  him,  made  him 
popular  with  his  own  set.  Young  ladies  admired  him,  school- 
girls adored  him,  and  tailors  dunned  him.  Taking  him  alto- 
gether, he  was  a  young  man  of  great  promise,  — at  least,  so 
his  creditors  said.  The  wreck  of  this  gay  young  man  was 
before  me  in  the  person  of  the  tramp.  Evidently  he  did  not 


THE    TRAMP. 


recognize  me.  I  asked  him  to  walk  with  me  towards  the  hotel 
that  I  was  stopping  at.  As  we  were  walking  along,  he  said 
his  name  was  Brown,  and  he  gave  me  a  fictitious  history  of  his 
family  and  himself.  It  was  pitiful  to  hear  him  wind  long  and 
dismal  lies  out  of  himself,  —  all  of  them,  more  or  less,  excuses 
for  his  present  dilapidated  condition. 

Arriving  at  the  hotel,  I  induced  him  to  sit  down  on  the 
stoop.  I  told  him  that  he  reminded  me  so  much  of  a  friend  I 
used  to  know,  and  that  I  thought  surely  he  did  not  always 


588  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

spell  his  name  "Brown."  He  saw  that  I  knew  the  secret  of  his 
identity,  looked  confused  for  a  moment,  then,  gazing  at  me 
with  intense  interest,  he  recognized  me. 

The  mixture  of  tramp  and  gentleman,  of  pleasure  in  recogniz- 
ing an  old  friend,  and  of  chagrin  at  being  recognized,  was  a 
study.  As  I  was  not  a  studying  man,  I  shook  hands  with 
my  old  friend,  and  in  a  few  minutes  learned  his  true  story. 
As  he  spoke,  there  was  none  of  the  old  affectation  of  voice 
and  intonation.  There  was  a  sober  earnestness,  mixed  with 
a  shade  of  sadness,  in  his  voice.  He  said,  — 

"  Four  years  ago  I  had  a  row  with  the  governor.  I  spent  a 
great  deal  of  money,  as  you  may  remember,  and  associated  with 
a  fast  set.  I  was  admired  and  flattered  for  my  wit,  smartness, 
and  good  looks,  as  I  then  thought.  Now  I  know  my  popularity 
was  based  on  the  suppers,  the  drives,  the  opera-boxes,  and  other 
good  things  that  my  father's  money  furnished  to  my  friends. 
I  thought  that  I  knew  a  great  deal  more  than  my  father  did. 
I  looked  on  him  as  an  old  fogy  with  a  ridiculously  exalted  idea 
as  to  the  value  of  money,  —  very  good  in  his  way,  and  useful 
about  the  first  of  the  month,  but  much,  very  much,  behind  the 
times. 

"  On  one  occasion  I  became  angry  because  my  father  ex- 
postulated with  me  regarding  my  extravagance.  In  my  wrath, 
I  made  the  assertion  that  I  could  and  would  be  independent  of 
his  assistance.  I  sailed  for  New  York,  arriving  in  that  haven 
of  the  world's  scapegraces  with  a  few  pounds  in  my  pockets. 
I  spent  all  the  money  I  had,  before  I  tried  to  procure  work.  I 
had  no  very  definite  idea,  at  the  time,  of  what  kind  of  work 
I  was  best  suited  for.  I  had  a  rather  general  idea  that  I  was 
capable  of  almost  any  thing,  from  the  running  of  an  iron-clad 
war-ship  to  the  steering  of  an  ox-team,  and  that,  when  I  would 
condescend  to  engage  in  business,  I  would  find  quite  an  amount 
of  competition  for  my  services.  During  the  past  four  years 
I  have  accumulated  a  great  deal  of  experience.  I  have  learned 
the  value  of  money.  I  know  that  it  takes  three  hours'  hard 
work  at  a  wood-pile,  and  several  blisters  on  my  hands,  to  earn 
a  single  silver  quarter,  with  some  profane  compliments  thrown 
in  because  some  of  the  sticks  are  too  long  for  the  dining-room 


THE   TRAMP. 


589 


stove.  I  know  that  in  Texas  half  a  dollar  will  purchase  the 
privilege  of  sleeping  with  the  old  man  in  the  room,  with  '  Har- 
per's Weekly'  illustrations  on  the  wall,  a  draught  under  the 
door,  and  a  hole  in  the  roof,  while  a  quarter  will  only  secure 
the  use  of  a  horse-blanket  on  the  back  gallery  with  the  dog. 
Yes,  I  have  had  a  varied  experience,  —  taught  a  school,  drove  a 
street-car,  been  on  one  coasting-voyage  before  the  mast,  painted 
patent-medicine  fence-advertisements,  was  three  months  with 
the  rangers,  sang  in  a  minstrel  show,  taught  a  class  in  boxing, 
and  filled  many  other  positions  more  peculiar  than  lucrative. 
I  am  one  of  the  blanks  in  life's  lottery.  I  am  too  proud  to 
acknowledge  my  failure.  Some  day  I  may  go  home  to  gladden 
the  heart  of  my  good  old  father;  but  by  that  time,  perhaps  — 
well,  I  must  be  moving.  God  bless  you,  old  boy!  Good-night." 
I  had  intended  dovetailing  a  moral  on  to  the  end  of  the 
tramp's  story.  The  narrative  is  painful  enough,  however, 
without  that:  so  let  us  diverge. 


590 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    XLII. 


NEXT  story  was  told  by  the 
newspaper -man,  whose  trials 
and  tribulations  figure  so  ex- 
tensively in  these  pages. 

It  was  at  the  beginning  of 
the   war.     His   regiment   was 
marching    through    Louisiana 
by  forced  marches  ;  for  it  is  a 
solemn  matter  of  fact,  that 
the   first   troops    that   went 
out  from  Texas  were  in  very 
much    of   a   hurry,    because 
they    feared    that    the    war 
would  be  over  before  they 
could  reach  the  tented  field. 

They  were  afraid  that  the  Virginians  would  swindle  them  out 
of  their  share  of  glory  in  taking  Washington.  While  the 
Northern  people  were  talking  about  a  ninety-days'  war,  the 
Texans  thought  it  hardly  worth  while  to  start  out,  as  the  war 
would  be  over  before  they  could  get  a  chance  to  strike  a  blow. 
But  to  the  story,  which  is  best  given  in  the  language  of  the 
newspaper-man  himself :  — 

"Just  before  dark  one  afternoon,  we  passed  a  comfortable- 
looking  farmhouse,  the  owner  of  which  was  busily  engaged, 
with  a  very  anxious  expression  of  countenance  and  a  long  pole, 
in  driving  a  number  of  pigs  under  the  house.  The  impression 
that  forced  itself  upon  us,  on  observing  this  conduct,  was,  that 
he  thought  the  pigs  would  be  safer,  and  last  longer,  as  far  as 
his  selfish  wants  were  concerned,  under  his  immediate  super- 


A  HOG-STORY. 


591 


vision,  than  in  any  place  where  we  could  get  at  them.  One  of 
my  comrades,  who  was  trudging  along  by  my  side,  Bob  Beasley, 
—  a  proud,  high-strung,  sensitive  fellow,  but  as  honest,  neverthe- 
less, as  the  day  is  long,  —  was  stung  to  the  quick  by  the  action 
of  the  farmer;  and,  turning  to  me,  Bob  said,  'That  is  an  insult 
to  our  sacred  cause,  and  to  every  honest  man  in  the  regiment. 
Let  us  resent  it.  Let  us  teach  this  man  to  respect  us.  Let's 
go  back  there  to-night,  and  steal  one  of  his  darned  old  hogs, 
to  show 
him  that  /L«A 

i.     itA  sJs^—iSSS      -      S&.   "-—'. 

we  won't 
stand  any 
ofhisinsin- 
uations.' 

"  I  saw 
that  Bob's 
feelings 
were  hurt 
by  the  un- 
generous 
conduct  of 
the  rustic, 
and  en- 
deavored 
to  calm 
him  down, 

but  in  vain.  His  blood  was  up.  I  agreed  to  assist  him  in 
wiping  out  the  insult,  on  condition  that  I  should  have  one-half 
of  the  pork.  We  camped  a  few  miles  from  the  house  ;  and  that 
night,  although  we  were  very  tired,  we  cheerfully  trudged  back 
to  the  house  where  we  had  seen  the  farmer  trying  to  steal  the 
pigs  from  us.  We  quietly  called  a  council  of  war,  and  agreed 
upon  a  campaign  plan.  It  was  thought  best  not  to  make  any 
unnecessary  noise,  as  it  might  induce  the  farmer  to  come  out 
and  still  further  irritate  us.  All  we  really  wanted  was  the 
hog.  Bob  Beasley  was  to  crawl  through  the  hole  under  the 
house,  and  drive  the  hogs  out,  because  he  was  more  familiar 
with  the  habits  of  hogs  than  I  was.  I  was  to  assume  an  offen- 


INSINUATIONS. 


592 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


sive  position,  with  a  club,  at  the  outside  of  the  hole,  and  as 
soon  as  a  hog  came  out  I  was  to  stun  him  with  a  blow,  after 
which  he  was  to  be  despatched,  and  carried  to  camp.  Bob 

crawled  in  on  all-fours,  and  pretty  soon 
I  heard  a  hog  scrambling  toward  the 
hole.  I  drew  back  my  club  ;  and,  just 
as  the  porker  came  out  through  the 
hole,  I  gave  him  a  tremendous  blow. 

Bob  Beas- 


ley  gave  a 
grunt,  for 
he  was  the 
hog.  I  had 
only  dislo- 
cated his 
shoulder,  in- 
stead  of 
knocking 
his  brains 
out.  The 
farmer,  it 
seems,  had 
added  in- 
sult to  in- 
jury by  re- 
moving his 
hogs  from 
under  the 
house.  He  did  not  think  they  were  safe  even  there. 

"Bob  expressed  himself  very  forcibly.  He  used  language 
to  me  which  no  soldier  should  use  to  a  comrade.  He  was 
evidently  much  disappointed  at  not  finding  the  hogs  under  the 
house.  In  the  excitement  of  the  moment  I  spoke  emphatically, 
in  a  low  tone  of  voice,  of  what  I  thought  of  the  conduct  of  the 
farmer.  I  had  a  good  notion  to  inform  the  colonel  of  our 
regiment,  and  have  the  agriculturist  imprisoned  as  a  traitor.  I 
should  certainly  have  denounced  his  treachery  ;  but  I  was  afraid, 
that,  if  I  said  any  thing  about  the  affair,  our  motives  for  trying 


I'VE    GOT    HIM." 


THE  DISTINGUISHED  LAWYER'S  STORY.       593 


to  kill  the  hog  might  have  been  misconstrued.  I  volunteered 
to  carry  Bob  Beasley  to  camp  on  my  back,  which  was  only  two 
or  three  miles  off.  I  would  not  have  volunteered  if  Beasley 
had  not  given  me  his  solemn  word  of  honor  that  he  would 
assassinate  me  if  I  did  not  carry  him  cheerfully.  When  I  got 
to  camp  I  had  acquired  a  permanent  curvature  of  the  spine, 
which  is  one  of  the  offerings  I  cheerfully  laid  upon  the  altar  of 
my  country.  Our  devotion  to  principle  was  not  appreciated 
by  our  comrades,  who  would  jeeringly  call  out,  '  How's  your 
hog  ? '  whenever  we  passed  along  the  line.  From  that  hour  I 
instinctively  felt  that  the  cause  of  the  Confederacy  was 
hopeless." 

The  distinguished  San  Antonio  lawyer  then  told  his  story. 
He,  too,  had  been  in  the  Confederate  army  during  the  time 
that  the  Northern  and  South- 
ern States  suspended  cordial 
relations.     He  said,  — 

"  I  belonged  to  Col.  Duff's 
regiment,  the  Thirty -third 
Texas  cavalry.  Our  colonel 
was  an  old  United  -  States 
officer,  and  by  his  knowledge 
of  military  matters,  particu- 
larly the  manipulation  of  red 
tape,  had  managed  to  obtain 
for  us  first-class  uniforms, 
splendid  fire-arms,  and  the 
ill  will  of  the  rest  of  the  ,~- 
Texas  troops.  As  he  kept 
us  well  drilled,  and  preserved 
strict  discipline,  our  regiment  CARRYING  BOB. 

was  like  one  in  the  regular 

United-States  army,  and  very  much  in  contrast  with  other 
regiments  of  the  brigade,  which  were  without  uniforms  or 
discipline.  There  was  much  bad  feeling  in  consequence,  but 
not  on  our  part.  The  brigade  was  ordered  into  winter  quarters, 
in  1863,  on  Red  River,  near  Lanesport,  which  has  Texas  on 
one  side,  — and  is  opposite  the  boundary-line  of  the  Indian 
38 


594 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


Territory, — and  Arkansaw  on  the  other.  Our  camp  was  in 
Arkansaw,  in  a  bend  of  Red  River,  about  ten  miles  from  Lanes- 
port.  One  day  I  was  detailed  to  accompany  Col.  Duff  to  Clarks- 
ville,  in  Texas,  and  to  return  with  the  empty  ambulance.  We 

proceeded  up  Red  River  to  the 
ferry  at  Lanesport,  where  there 
was  a  guard  from  Col.  Smith's 
regiment.  The  guards  were  a 
hard-looking  set  of  men.  No  two 
V  iJt^WKPtt'-y'^ .  -  were  dressed  alike.  The  only 


CALLING    THE    ROLL. 


uniform  things  about  them  were  the  long  hair  that  hung  around 
their  shoulders,  and  the  grease  on  their  tattered  clothes.  There 
was  a  company  of  them  stationed  at  the  ferry ;  and,  just  as  we 
drove  up,  they  were  gathered  together  around  a  stump,  on  top 
of  which  the  captain  was  standing,  calling  the  roll.  We  were 


SMOOT,    THE  EX  STAGE-DRIVER.  595 

told,  with  some  pride,  by  the  officer  in  command,  that  so  rigid 
was  the  discipline,  that  very  rarely  a  week  passed  over  without 
the  roll  being  called.  We  passed  over  the  river,  and,  after  a 
brief  drive,  reached  Clarksville,  where  we  put  up  at  a  hotel. 
Next  morning  Col.  Duff  proceeded  on  to  San  Antonio,  and  we 
started  on  our  return  to  camp  with  the  ambulance.  By  'we,' 
reference  is  made  to  the  driver  and  myself.  The  driver's  name 
was  Smoot.  He  was  a  middle-aged  man,  adorned  with  a  great 
deal  of  baldness  about  the  top  of  his  head,  to  make  up  for 
which,  however,  he  had  an  immense  yellow  beard  that  covered 
his  breast,  and  seemed  to  have  received  its  color  from  mis- 
directed tobacco-juice.  He  had  little  twinkling  eyes,  and  was 
a  professional  stage-driver. 

"After  we  had  enjoyed  a  really  excellent  breakfast  —  some- 
thing with  which  we  had  not  been  familiar  for  a  long  time  —  at 
the  hotel  in  Clarksville,  Smoot  picked  his  teeth  with  great  sat- 
isfaction and  a  large  bowie-knife,  and  remarked  that  we  might 
as  well  be  thinking  of  sailing  out.  He  also  remarked,  inciden- 
tally, that  the  '  spare-ribs  '  were  good.  Anybody  who  had  been 
banqueting  for  several  years  on  the  blue  beef  and  sour  corn- 
meal  of  the  Confederacy  would  have  been  willing,  and  even 
anxious,  to  proclaim  the  excellences  of  that  breakfast  from 
the  housetops.  I  remarked  that  I  was  prepared  to  sustain  him 
in  the  position  he  had  taken. 

"  As  we  rode  along,  Smoot  seemed  to  be  turning  over  some- 
thing in  his  mind.  After  a  while  he  spoke  out,  and  proceeded 
to  unfold  the  devilish  plot  that  he  had  been  hatching  in  his 
mind.  Said  he,  — 

" '  You  saw  all  those  hogs  feeding  along  the  road  between 
here  and  the  ferry  ?  What's  to  hinder  us  from  killing  one,  put- 
ting him  in  the  ambulance,  and  taking  him  right  into  camp  ? 
The  guards  at  the  ferry  will  never  notice  it,  and  we  won't  call 
their  attention  to  it.' 

" '  We  may  be  caught  by  the  provost-guard,  and  put  in  the 
bull-pen.  Besides,  it  ain't  right  to  —  to  be  caught,'  said  I. 

"'That's  so.  But  nobody  who  is  not  caught  is  put  in  the 
bull-pen.  It's  only  them  that's  caught  that's  on  the  inside.' 

"  Smoot  was  as  persuasive  as  he  was  ungrammatical ;  and  I 


596  ,  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

liked  fresh  pork  so  much  myself,  that  I  yielded  to  his  wishes, 
and  we  formed  a  partnership  to  go  into  the  pork-trade  at  once. 
I  would  have  felt  much  easier  in  my  mind  if  we  could  have 
taken  in  the  guard  at  the  ferry  as  a  third  partner.  Perhaps 
the  simplest  way  to  have  avoided  the  whole  trouble  would  have 
been  to  take  the  owner  of  the  hog  into  our  confidence,  as  a 
member  of  the  firm,  and  to  pay  for  the  hog ;  but  it  was  not 
customary  for  soldiers  to  commit  such  reckless  acts  of  extrava- 
gance. It  is  not  good  to  have  too  many  partners  in  one  small  pig. 

" '  But  suppose  the  owner  of  the  pig  interrupts  us  ? ' 

"  '  We  won't  let  him.  We  will  interrupt  him  if  he  attempts 
it,'  said  Smoot. 

" '  But  suppose  he  does,  anyhow  ? ' 

" '  If  wuss  comes  to  wussness,  we  can  offer  to  pay  for  it  in 
Confederate  money.' 

" '  Suppose  he  won't  take  it  ? ' 

"  '  Arrest  him  for  trying  to  depreciate  the  credit  of  the  Con- 
federacy.' 

"Still  I  had  misgivings.  It  seemed  to  me  impossible  that 
the  blessings  of  Heaven  would  light  upon  the  enterprise,  even 
if  we  fooled  the  guard.  We  noticed  some  very  large  fat  hogs 
in  the  suburbs  of  Clarksville,  but  Smoot  said  he  preferred 
country  hogs.  Unlike  most  stage-drivers  and  Confederate  sol- 
diers, Smoot  was  distressingly  particular  about  what  he  ate. 
We  passed  numerous  hogs  as  we  drove  along,  but  they  were  all 
more  or  less  objectionable.  Not  being  beggars,  we  could  afford 
to  be  choosers.  Some  of  the  hogs  were  too  small,  others  too 
lean  ;  some  were  too  far  off ;  and  some  that  would  have  suited 
precisely  insisted  upon  remaining  as  near  a  house  as  possible, 
from  which  I  inferred  that  we  were  not  the  first  Confederate 
soldiers  who  had  passed  along  that  way.  We  did  not  care  to 
molest  any  hog  near  a  house.  Our  object  was  to  get  the  pork, 
not  to  disturb  the  owner.  Thus  it  happened  that  we  came 
within  five  or  six  miles  of  the  ferry  without  having  been  guilty 
of  any  lawlessness  whatever. 

"  'We  have  got  to  kill  one  now,  or  not  at  all,  for  the  provost- 
guard  at  the  ferry  has  got  away  with  all  in  that  vicinity,'  said 
Smoot. 


OPERATIONS  IN  PORK.  597 

"We  passed  a  comfortable-looking  farmhouse,  in  front  of 
which  an  aged  patriarch,  leaning  on  his  staff,  was  engaged  in 
feeding  his  flock  of  chickens.  The  old  man  gave  us  a  suspi- 
cious look  as  we  drove  past.  After  we  had  gone  about  two 
hundred  yards,  we  perceived  a  lot  of  hogs  rooting  by  the  road- 
side. They  evidently  belonged  to  the  farm  we  had  just  passed. 

" '  I  reckon  we  will  be  compelled  to  take  one  of  them  along. 
They  are  not  fat ;  but  we  haven't  got  time  to  stay  here  until 
they  do  get  fat,'  said  Smoot. 

" '  But  tne  old  cuss  can't  help  seeing  us  from  the  house.' 

"  'Then,  let  him  go  inside  :  nobody's  hindering  him.  I  won- 
der if  he  is  a  cripple.  Somehow,  I  would  have»more  confidence 
in  myself  if  I  knew  he  couldn't  run  fast.' 

"  '  I  tell  you,  Smoot,  we  might  scare  the  old  man  by  shooting 
so  close  to  him.  The  house  is  too  near  us.' 

" '  It's  too  late  now  for  us  to  move  it  away.  —  Here,  suke, 
suke ! '  And  he  took  out  an  ear  of  corn,  and  threw  some  of  the 
grains  on  the  ground,  to  inspire  the  hogs  with  confidence. 
They  hastened  to  the  banquet  with  joyous  grunts,  and  twirled 
their  tails  with  delight.  Such  kind-hearted  men  as  Smoot,  who 
liked  hogs,  were  scarce  in  that  region.  The  pigs  really  seemed 
to  enjoy  the  corn  as  they  ran  out  and  in  among  the  wheels  of 
the  ambulance,  and  called  for  an  encore. 

11  Smoot  shaded  his  eyes,-  and  took  a  view  of  the  house  and 
the  patriarch,  murmuring,  '  I  wonder  how  he  is  off  for  rheuma- 
tism. If  he  was  only  deaf,  he  needn't  be  rheumaticky  at  all. 
An  old  man  like  him  ought  to  be  deafer  than  a  post.' 

"  Smoot  drew  my  revolver  from  the  scabbard,  and  examined 
it  as  if  he  wanted  to  buy  it. 

" '  Now,  keep  your  eye  on  the  old  coon,  while  I  have  a  per- 
sonal difficulty  with  that  speckled  shote  that  is  eating  up  my 
corn.' 

"  Bang ! 

"  Smoot  had  shot  the  hog  near  the  eye :  but  it  did  not  fall 
dead,  as  was  expected;  at  least,  I  inferred  not,  for  never  in 
all  my  life  did  I  hear  such  direful  squeals.  The  noise  was  so 
keen  and  piercing  that  I  had  to  put  my  hands  on  my  ears.  It 
scared  the  mules  :  they  wanted  to  run — and  so  did  I.  I  thought 


598 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


we  were  lucky  not  to  have  come  across  a  big  hog  if  a  little 

speckled  shote  made  all  that  fuss. 

"  'Drive  on,'  I  cried :  'that  hog  doesn't  want  to  go  along.' 

'"Not  much,' said 

•^-\  •?->•-.,,.,_    /    .,-•  Smoot.     'Just  jump 

down    and    cut    his 
throat.' 

"  The  shote,  fran- 
tic  with  pain, 
charged  right  upon 
me  ;  and,  purely  in 
self-defence,  I  made 
a  pass  at  it  with  the 
knife,  that  nearly  cut 
its  head  off,  killing  it 
instantly.  All  this 
was  done  very  quick- 
ly ;  but  we  had  neg- 
lected to  watch  the 
old  man.  We  had 
not  paid  as  much 
attention  to  him  as 
he  deserved.  But 
it  seemed  that  he 
was  more  attentive 
to  us,  as  strangers, 
than  >ve  had  any 
reason  to  expect. 

'"Oh,    you  - 
scoundrels!  I'll 


"ILL    TEACH    YOU    VILLAINS    TO    STEAL    HOGS 


teach  you  

villains  to  steal 
hogs ! ' 

"  I  looked  over  my  shoulder ;  and  there  was  the  profane  old 
scoundrel  within  ten  yards  of  us,  making  astonishing  time  for 
one  so  aged.  He  was  too  close  for  us  to  put  the  hog  into  the 
ambulance  :  so  Smoot  drove  around  the  curve  in  the  road,  and 
I  cut  through  the  wood  to  meet  him,  being  still  closely 


PURSUED.  599 

followed  by  the  dead  animal.  This  time,  however,  I  held  it  by 
the  hind-leg.  The  old  man  gained  on  me  so  rapidly  that  I  felt 
constrained  to  adopt  his  suggestion,  and  'drop  that  hog,'  which 
I  did,  jumping  into  the  ambulance  with  Smoot,  and  rapidly 
driving  away. 

" '  Whew !  that  must  have  been  a  pet  pig,'  observed  Smoot 
dryly. 

"  :  I  hope  it  won't  follow  us  up  any  more.' 

'"Why  didn't  you  stop,  and  offer  him  ten  thousand  dollars 
Confederate  money  ? '  said  Smoot. 

"We  laughed  heartily  at  first  about  an  old  man  with  a  stick 
robbing  two  Confederate  soldiers  of  their  rations ;  but,  some- 
how or  other,  I  was  full  of  misgivings  that  there  was  going  to 
be  a  side-show  or  concert  after  the  principal  performance  was 
over.  I  remarked  to  Smoot,  that,  if  the  old  fellow  kept  on  after 
us  at  the  rate  he  was  travelling  when  I  last  saw  him,  he  was 
probably  at  the  ferry  already.  We  made  the  mules  travel  as 
they  never  travelled  before.  We  drove  down  the  steep  bank 
of  the  river  into  the  ferryboat,  in  which  the  grim  sentinel  was 
lying  stretched  out  asleep,  with  his  trusty  musket  beside  him. 
We  woke  him  up,  and  showed  him  our  passes,  which  he  care- 
fully read  —  upside  down.  The  boat  pushed  off,  and  we  began 
to  feel  as  if  a  load  of  anxiety  was  removed  from  our  minds. 

"  '  What  a  voice  that  hog  had  !  I  can  hear  it  yet,'  said  I  to 
Smoot.  Then  I  suddenly  observed  a  painful  change  come  o'er 
the  tablet  of  his  thoughts,  as  if  he  had  been  eating  cucumbers. 
Four  horsemen,  waving  their  guns,  galloped  up  to  the  bank  we 
had  just  left,  and  called  to  the  ferryman,  'Stop  them  fellers! 
Stop  them  fellers  ! ' 

" '  I  wonder  what  all  the  enthusiasm  is  about  now,'  said 
Smoot,  smiling  in  a  sickly  way. 

" '  They  stole  my  hogs,'  bawled  out  our  pursuers. 

" '  It's  a  lie,'  said  Smoot. 

"  Even  as  we  gazed  at  the  opposite  bank  with  direful  fore- 
bodings, who  should  canter  up,  as  gay  as  a  youth  of  sixteen,  but 
our  old  friend  the  patriarch. 

"  '  That  kind  of  old  man,'  said  Smoot  pettishly,  '  ought  to  be 
put  in  the  army,  and  sent  to  the  front.' 


6oo 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


"  '  He  seems  to  be  coming  to  the  front  as  fast  as  you  want 
him  to,'  remarked  the  guard. 

"The  guard  'took  us  in  out  of  the  wet,'  as  he  expressed  it; 
and  the  boat  was  sent  back  to  bring  over  the  avengers  of  blood. 
The  tatterdemalions  gathered  around  us  in  high  glee.  That 

two  members  off  Duff's  regi- 
ment should  be  accused  of 
stealing  hogs  was  a  source  of 
great  gratification  to  them. 


•STOP    THEM     FELLERS! 


To  hear  them  talk,  one 
would  have  supposed 
that  they  would  not 
accept  a  hog  as  a  gift. 
They  were  profoundly 
shocked  at  the  gravity  of  the  charge  made  against  us,  and 
they  were  unanimously  of  the  opinion  that  the  Confederacy 
would  gain  its  independence  before  we  got  out  of  the  bull-pen 
The  officer  in  command  took  down  the  testimony  of  the  aged 
hog-man,  which  was  all  unfavorable,  particularly  to  me.  We 
denied  every  thing,  and  insisted  on  proof.  The  old  man  was 
eloquent  about  the  depravity  of  the  Confederate  soldiers,  and 


ARRESTED.  6oi 

he  hoped  to  live  to  see  the  Yankees  come  and  protect  the 
people  from  their  Confederate  protectors.  Some  of  his  re- 
marks were  also  personal  in  their  nature. 

"  The  ambulance  was  searched  for  more  evidence,  but  Smoot 
had  hidden  the  knife.  He  was  very  shrewd,  except  with  his 
mouth.  He  blurted  out,  'Oh,  yes!  you  are  hunting  for  the 
knife  with  which  we  killed'  — 

"A  judicious  punch  in  the  ribs  stopped  him  just  in  time. 
We  were  finally  urged  to  get  into  our  ambulance,  and  drive  to 
the  brigade  camp,  an  escort  of  two  mounted  men  accompany- 
ing us.  We  were  to  report,  under  guard,  to  Gen.  Gurley,  who 
was  in  command. 

"  '  This  sorter  reminds  me  of  a  funeral  procession,'  said  Smoot. 

" '  It  will  be  a  funeral  procession,  sure  enough,  if  you  don't 
hobble  that  mouth  of  yours.  From  this  moment  you  keep  the 
brake  on,  and  let  me  drive.  You  nearly  upset  every  thing 
three  or  four  times.' 

"  '  All  right.  If  they  ask  me  if  I  killed  the  hog,  I'll  not  open 
my  mouth.' 

"  About  dusk  we  reached  the  camp,  and  were  introduced  to 
Gen.  Gurley  in  his  tent.  He  was  a  raw-boned,  red-whiskered 
man  of  about  forty-five  or  fifty  years  of  age. 

" '  This  is  a  very  serious  charge  against  you,'  he  said,  after 
reading  the  letter  of  introduction  from  the  officer  who  arrested 
us.  We  thought  so  too ;  although  Smoot  was  going  to  explain 
that  it  was  a  very  small  speckled  shote,  and  not  at  all  fat,  when 
I  gave  him  a  look  that  halted  him  in  his  mad  career.  But  he 
broke  loose  again,  and  was  saying  that  '  it  was  not  as  serious 
as  it  might  have  been  if  the  hog '  —  I  punched  him  again, 
and  proceeded  to  converse  with  the  general,  regretting  that 
the  corpus  delicti,  the  pig,  accompanied  by  the  old  man,  was 
not  brought  face  to  face  with  me,  so  that  I  might  fill  them  with 
confusion.  I  made  such  a  plausible  speech  that  I  saw  the  gen- 
eral was  moved.  Smoot  told  me  several  years  afterwards,  that, 
after  my  speech,  he  had  never  been  able  to  persuade  himself 
that  he  had  any  thing  to  do  with  the  transaction.  After  I  had 
given  the  case  to  the  jury,  Gen.  Gurley  fixed  his  piercing  gray 
eyes  on  me,  and  said  in  a  deep  graveyard  voice,  — 


602  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  '  Didn't  you  shoot  that  hog  ? ' 

"  Smoot  tried  to  correct  the  general,  that  it  was  only  a 
speckled  shote,  and  not  a  hog,  that  we  killed ;  but  I  kicked 
him  on  the  sly. 

"  '  Didn't  you  shoot  that  hog  ? '  repeated  the  general. 

"As  it  was  Smoot  who  was  guilty  of  the  bad  marksmanship, 
I  raised  up  my  hand,  and  swore  that  I  did  not  shoot  that  hog ; 
and  I  did  it  with  a  solemnity  that  would  have  convinced  the 
old  patriarch  himself  that  the  hog  had  committed  suicide.  I 
appealed  to  Smoot  to  speak  right  out,  and  say  if  I  was  guilty. 
Smoot,  who  was  improving  in  diplomacy,  stated  that  he  was 
with  me  all  the  time,  and  he  would  have  been  bound  to  see  it 
if  I  had  fired  the  shot. 

" '  And  you  didn't  see  anybody  shoot  that  hog  ? '  asked  the 
general  incredulously. 

"  Smoot  had  a  relapse  of  stupidity  ;  for  he  was  about  to  ex- 
plain how  I  was  looking  at  the  old  man  when  the  shot  was 
fired,  when  I  broke  in  with  most  earnest  protestations  of  not 
having  seen  anybody  shoot. 

"  Gen.  Gurley  was  fully  convinced  of  our  innocence,  ordered 
our  release,  and  spoke  seriously  of  having  charges  preferred 
against  the  officer  who  arrested  us.  But  I  interceded  for  him, 
alleging  that  he  was  very  ignorant,  and  filled  with  zeal  for  the 
Confederacy ;  that  it  would,  perhaps,  be  best  not  to  discourage 
him.  I  heard  afterwards,  that,  when  Gen.  Gurley  learned  the 
real  facts  of  the  case,  he  said  he  was  astonished  at  how  much 
ability  and  talent  there  was  among  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
army." 

"  Did  you  ever  see  the  old  patriarch  again  ? "  asked  the 
doctor. 

"  Once,  about  two  months  afterwards,  I  had  that  pleasure. 
Half  a  dozen  of  us  had  received  our  furloughs,  and  started  for 
home.  We  did  not  go  by  Lanesport,  but  struck  across  the 
country.  Just  about  night  we  reached  the  main  road,  and, 
stopping  at  a  farm,  obtained  permission  to  stay  all  night. 
When  we  sat  down  at  the  supper-table,  whom  should  I  perceive 
at  the  head  of  it  but  the  old  patriarch.  During  the  meal  he 
recognized  me.  He  stared  at  me  in  speechless  amazement. 


A   BASE   INSINUATION. 


603 


Then  he  reached  over,  and,  handing  me  a  plate,  asked,  'Won't 
you  take  some  spare-ribs  ? ' 

"  I  did  take  some,  and  praised  them  more  than  they  deserved, 
complaining  that  we  never  got  any  pork  in  camp.  I  was  in 
the  best  of  spirits,  and  told  many  humorous  stories  of  soldier- 
life,  which  frequently  convulsed  the  aged  spouse  of  the  patri- 
arch, who  would  not  have  been  so  liberal  with  her  applause  if 
she  had  known  who  I  was.  ,The  old  gentleman  kept  on  passing 
me  spare-ribs.  He  was  a  jolly  old  customer,  and  had  forgiven 
me ;  for  he  gave  me  an  indescribable  wink,  as  much  as  to  say, 
'This  is  our  joke.' 
After  supper,  being 
much  fatigued,  we 
retired  to  our  apart- 
ments. Mine  was 
next  to  that  of  the 
aged  couple,  but  I 
could  hear  every 
word  that  was  said 
in  the  next  room. 
The  old  lady  said, 
giggling,  — 

"  '  What  a  funny 
fellow  that  little 
one  is ! ' 

" '  Old  woman,'  was  the  response,  '  he  is  the  one  that  killed 
our  shot 'e.' 

"  Next  morning,  at  breakfast,  the  old  lady  sat  perfectly  rigid, 
with  a  hard,  stern  expression  of  countenance.  The  old  man 
was  very  reticent.  His  wife  had  evidently  been  exerting  her 
influence  over  him.  Like  a  delegate  to  a  convention,  he  had 
been  instructed.  Being  in  one  of  my  most  reckless  moods,  I 
asked  him  if  the  passing  Confederate  soldiers  ever  killed  any  of 
his  hogs.  He  said  very  emphatically  that  they  did  not  do  any 
thing  else. 

"'This  is  the  first  time  I  ever  heard  of  Confederate  sol- 
diers committing  such  an  outrage,'  I  remarked  with  astonish- 
ment. 


'OLD    WOMAN,    HE    IS    THE    ONE    THAT    KILLED   OUR   SHOTE." 


604  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  'You  never  stole  our  speckled  shote,  either? '  screamed  the 
old  lady. 

"  There  was  universal  astonishment,  and  I  boldly  denied  the 
base  insinuation.  All  of  my  comrades  put  in  a  good  word  for 
me.  Sergeant  McLaren  said  that  he  had  raised  me,  and  that  I 
had  never  stolen  the  value  of  a  pin  during  my  whole  life.  An- 
other said,  that,  if  there  was  one  man  in  camp  who  would 
never  do  a  wrong  act,  I  was  the  guilty  party.  Still  another 
proved  a  complete  alibi ;  stating  he  was  with  me  in  San  An- 
tonio, five  hundred  miles  distant,  when  the  hog  was  killed. 

"  '  Have  you  got  a  twin-brother  ? '  said  the  old  patriarch. 

"  '  No  twin-brother.' 

"The  subject  was  dropped  at  this  point.  When  we  were 
leaving,  the  old  man  came  close  to  me,  and,  whispering  in  my 
ear,  said, — 

"  'All  I've  got  to  say  is,  that,  if  you  ain't  killed  while  you  are 
out  stealing  hogs,  you  are  going  to  be  the  very  best  lawyer  in 
Texas.'" 


MINERAL  RESOURCES   OF  TEXAS. 


605 


CHAPTER    XLIII. 


gs,  FOUND  extensive  beds  of  mag- 
netic iron  ore  in  many  of  the 
counties  bordering  on 
the  Rio  Grande.  Iron 
ore  exists  in  vast  quan- 
tities in  many  parts  of 
the  State.  Smelting 
the  iron  ores  of  Texas 
has  been  attempted 
only  on  a  small  scale. 
What  has  been  smelted 
has  yielded  from  sixty 
to  seventy-five  per  cent 
of  metallic  iron.  The 

coal  that  is  found  in  Texas  is  not  suitable  for  smelting  pur- 
poses, as  it  contains  more  or  less  sulphur.  In  different  parts 
of  the  State,  beds  of  lignite  exist.  Lignite  is  useless  for  smelt- 
ing purposes,  and,  so  far,  efforts  to  convert  it  into  coke  have 
failed :  but  no  doubt  some  chemical  process  will  be  discovered 
to  make  coke  of  the  lignite ;  and  then  the  vast  iron  deposits, 
now  valueless,  can  be  utilized. 

I  could  tell  a  great  deal  about  the  copper,  iron,  silver,  lead, 
and  coal  that  are  lying  down  under  the  prairie-flower  and 
mountain-cactus  in  Texas  :  but  to  do  so  I  would  have  to  speak 
of  the  azoic  rocks,  Jurassic  period,  cretaceous  era,  permian  for- 
mations, tertiary  strata,  and  words  to  that  effect ;  and  that 
would  only  be  taking  advantage  of  the  reader  who  does  not 
know  whether  the  old  red  sandstone  is  found  above  or  below 
the  carboniferous  series,  and  to  whom  it  is  a  matter  of  indiffer- 


6o6  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

ence  whether  foraminiferous  shells  of  the  Fnsulina  cylindrica 
occur  in  abundance  in  the  siliceous  limestones,  or  are  only  to 
be  found  in  small  quantities  in  the  paleozoic  series. 

I  have  considered  the  matter,  and  have  concluded  that  it 
would  not  be  right  for  me  to  talk  that  way,  as  I  am  neither  a 
geological  survey  nor  a  mineralogical  bureau  :  so  I  simply  dis- 
miss the  subject  with  the  statement,  that,  if  the  possession  of 
undeveloped  mines  abounding  in  vast  quantities  of  precious 
metals  and  valuable  minerals,  is  indicative  of  wealth,  Texas  is 
one  of  the  most  opulent  corners  of  the  earth. 

The  doctor  had  a  great  admiration  for  journalism.  It  was 
his  opinion  that  the  press  was  a  powerful  agency  in  the  dis- 
semination of  intelligence.  He  thought  the  most  convincing 
proof  of  the  great  intelligence  of  the  American  people  was  to 
be  found  in  the  fact  that  there  were  so  many  newspapers  pub- 
lished all  over  the  country,  just  as  some  people  regard  the  vast 
number  of  religious  beliefs  in  the  United  States  as  proof  of  the 
great  piety  of  the  people.  The  doctor  took  quite  an  interest 
in  our  journalistic  acquaintance ;  and,  as  we  rode  along,  he  in- 
terrogated him  at  considerable  length  in  regard  to  journalism 
in  Texas. 

"  I  suppose,"  said  the  doctor,  "  that  your  experience  on  the 
Texas  press  has  been  varied  ?  " 

"  Yes,  varied  and  painful.  The  world  little  knows  what 
some  of  us  have  to  suffer.  You  have  heard  of  the  celebrated 
doctor  who  tried  all  his  newly  discovered  medicines,  and  com- 
binations of  medicines,  on  his  apprentice.  Well,  some  editors 
do  that  sort  of  thing.  When  I  was  local  on  a  San  Antonio 
paper,  the  editor  used  to  try  his  editorials  on  me  until  I  was 
almost  reduced  to  a  skeleton." 

"  Tried  his  editorials  on  you  ?  " 

"  Yes,  he  tried  them  on  me.  I  would  be  busy  endeavoring 
to  capture  a  joke,  and  pull  it  into  my  local  column  backwards 
by  the  tail.  The  editor  would  stop  me  in  my  mad  career,  and 
ask  me  if  I  didn't  want  to  hear  him  read  his  editorial  aloud. 
If  I  had  told  the  truth,  I  would  have  said  that  I  preferred  a 
dose  of  castor-oil,  and  he  would  have  thought  that  my  heart 
was  not  in  the  success  of  the  paper.  So  I  would  smile  as  if  I 


PR  OFO  UNDL  Y  EXASPERA  TING. 


607 


had  been  invited  to  an  oyster-supper,  and  say,  'Certainly, 
colonel,  don't  disappoint  me.'  And  he  never  did." 

"  Were  his  editorials  so  profoundly  uninteresting  ? "  queried 
the  doctor. 

"They  were  profoundly  exasperating.  If  the  colonel  had 
ever  attempted  to  read  one  in  public,  he  would  have  been 
lynched.  But  what  caused  me  the  most  suffering  was  the  way 
he  administered  them.  I  could  have  borne  it  if  he  had  merely 


TRYING    HIS    EDITORIALS    ON    THE    REPORTER. 


read  them  over  once  ;  but,  with  a  refinement  of  cruelty  that 
would  have  done  credit  to  a  Spanish  inquisitor,  he  read  them 
to  me  by  sections.  He  would  read  ten  lines  at  a  time,  then 
stop  to  consult  the  dictionary  as  to  whether  he  should  spell  a 
word  with  one  /  or  with  two." 

"  Why  didn't  you  refuse  to  listen  to  him  ? "  asked  the  doctor. 

"Nice  advice,  that,  from  a  peace-loving  Yankee  who  is 
always  deprecating  lawlessness  in  the  South  !  I  did  hint  to 
the  colonel,  once,  that  I  had  to  hurry  off  to  write  an  official 


608  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

account  of  a  cock-fight ;  but  the  old  fellow  flung  the  paper- 
weights around,  and  got  mad.  He  also  flung  out  hints  that 
ray  princely  salary  was  too  much  for  the  concern  to  stagger 
under,  —  draining  its  life-blood,  he  said.  Always  after  that, 
when  he  offered  to  read  an  editorial  to  me,  I  encouraged  him 
to  do  his  worst." 

"  You  spoke  of  his  peculiar  way  of  reading  the  editorial.  I 
did  not  quite  understand." 

"  He  would  read  the  first  ten  lines.  After  I  had  listened  to 
that  in  an  entranced  sort  of  way,  silently  gnashing  my  teeth, 
and  wishing  for  death,  he  would  perpetrate  ten  lines  more,  and 
then,  with  a  cheerfulness  that  I  utterly  failed  to  share,  he  would 
say,  — 

"  '  Would  you  like  very  much  to  hear  a  little  more  ? ' 

"  I  intimated  that  life  would  be  a  barren  waste  without  it, 
and  then  he  would  continue  the  assault.  Now,  if  he  had  begun 
where  he  left  off,  I  would  not  have  complained  so  much ;  but 
he  began  again  at  the  very  beginning.  He  even  read  the 
head-lines  over  to  me.  Then  he  would  indite  ten  more  lines, 
and  go  back  to  the  beginning  and  re-read  it  all  over,  until  he 
had  inspired  me  with  a  two-column  article  on  some  such  live 
topic  as  'What  Salmon  P.  Chase  thought  of  Charles  Sumner.' 
It  was  like  paying  compound  interest  on  a  note  for  which  you 
had  never  received  the  slightest  compensation.  Cutting  off  a 
dog's  tail  by  inches  would  have  been  a  much  more  merciful 
proceeding.  If,  after  he  had  got  through,  I  didn't  say  that  it 
was  superior  to  the  leading  editorials  of  the  New-York  press, 
and  beg  him  to  read  it  over,  so  that  I  could  become  thoroughly 
saturated  with  its  beauties,  I  was  sure  to  hear  ominous  pane- 
gyrics on  a  talented  young  journalist  from  the  North,  who  was 
in  town,  and  offering  to  work  for  a  nominal  salary.  My  salary, 
which  I  never  got  except  in  homoeopathic  doses,  was  phenome- 
nal—  phenomenally  small." 

"  What  became  of  the  paper  ? " 

"  It  is  dead  now.  There  was,  however,  one  green  oasis  in 
that  dreary  Sahara  of  journalism.  On  the  colonel's  desk  was  a 
file,  or  rather  a  straight,  upright  wire,  upon  which  he  used  to 
impale  all  the  live  items  and  choice  selections  from  the  ex- 


DISSEMINATING  INTELLIGENCE.  609 

changes.  Our  sanctum  was  on  the  second  floor  of  the  building ; 
and  it  had  one  window  facing  the  distant  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
another  opening  on  the  street.  The  colonel's  desk  was  right 
between  these  two  windows.  All  day  long  the  Gulf  breeze 
was  going  through  the  office.  This  was  a  pleasant  change,  for 
usually  that  was  the  sheriff's  business.  The  principal  occupa- 
tion, however,  of  the  breeze,  was  to  distribute  the  clippings 
that  the  colonel  had  carefully  filed.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the 
breeze  did  not  blow  until  the  colonel  had  all  the  clippings  on 
the  file ;  but  then  it  distributed  faster,  by  a  great  deal,  than 
'the  post-office  clerks  do  when  the  public  is  waiting  for  its  mail. 
The  breeze  would  wrestle  with  the  clippings,  and,  taking  the 
topmost  item,  —  a  dainty  bit  of  wit,  perhaps,  from  '  The  New- 
York  News,' — would  make  its  escape  from  our  dull  sanctum 
out  into  the  street.  A  recipe  for  making  blackberry-brandy, 
or  a  cure  for  bots,  would  gradually  work  itself  up  to  the  point 
of  the  file,  and  out  it  would  go,  as  if  it  feared  the  colonel  was 
going  to  read  one  of  his  editorials  to  it.  Then,  perhaps,  an 
article  on  the  '  History  of  Oddfellowship  in  China  during  the 
Middle  Ages,'  or  the  '  Pan-Anglicanism  of  the  Early  Martyrs,' 
would  slide  out.  The  colonel,  being  a  little  short-sighted,  was 
utterly  oblivious  to  all  this.  He  would  slap  a  clipping  on  the 
file  with  the  remark  that  'somebody  must  come  in  at  night 
and  steal  the  clippings  off  the  file; '.and,  even  while  he  was 
speaking,  the  Gulf  breeze  would  be  struggling  with  that  very 
clipping.  Everybody  about  the  office  was  unjustly  suspected." 
"  Why  didn't  you  explain  to  the  colonel  about  the  breeze  ? " 
"  That  would  have  deprived  me  of  my  only  source  of  amuse- 
ment. It  kept  me  in  good  spirits  to  observe  the  dazed  look  on 
the  colonel's  face  when  the  foreman  called  on  him  for  copy, 
and  he  reached  for  the  clippings  that  had  just  floated  out  of 
the  window.  Like  Don  Quixote's  books,  they  had  gone  off 
with  a  wicked  magician,  who  was  jealous  of  the  owner's  fame. 
If  it  had  not  been  for  the  fun  that  the  Gulf  breeze  and  the 
colonel  were  having  with  each  other,  I  would  have  died.  An- 
other reason  why  I  did  not  interfere  was,  that  on  a  former  occa- 
sion, when  I  made  some  suggestions,  I  was  told  by  the  colonel, 
that,  if  ever  he  needed  any  advice  from  me,  I  would  be  officially 

39 


6 10  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

notified  through  the  proper  channels.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Gulf  breeze  had  never  given  me  any  offence :  so  why  should  I 
tell  on  it?" 

The  newspaper-man  continued,  "There  was  one  thing  on 
that  file  that  was  too  heavy  for  the  Gulf  breeze.  It  was  at  the 
bottom  of  the  file,  and  was  one  of  the  colonel's  ablest  editorials, 
which  was  being  held  over.  I  think  it  was  about  '  The  Time- 
honored  Principles  of  the  Democratic  Party.'  Day  after  day 
the  breeze  fought  in  vain  with  that  heavy  editorial.  At  last  it 
had  found  its  match.  Not  a  leaf  fluttered. 

"  One  day  a  small  cyclone  struck  San  Antonio.  It  twisted 
off  old  cottonwood-trees  that  had  shaded  the  monks  who  had 
settled  San  Antonio.  It  blew  the  roofs  from  houses  with 
mortgages  on  them.  The  centre  of  the  cyclone  struck  our 
office,  and  blew  out  the  window-sashes,  and  hurled  paper- 
weights across  the  street.  It  struck  that  heavy  editorial,  but 
it  did  not  move  it  an  inch.  It  was  like  so  much  solid  lead.  The 
cyclone  gave  it  up  in  disgust,  and  there  was  an  immense  calm." 

"  Whew !  "  said  the  doctor. 

"But  those  clippings  did  a  heap  of  good.  The  choicest 
American  newspaper  literature  was  scattered  all  over  that  part 
of  town,  much  to  the  enlightenment  and  amusement  of  the 
inhabitants.  On  the  lee-side  of  the  '  Herald '  office  the  people 
were  ten  times  more  intelligent  than  those  to  the  windward. 
You  could  not  go  ten  steps  without  seeing  either  a  poem  or 
some  interesting  paragraph.  Wherever  you  looked,  you  saw 
men  walking  along  slowly,  absorbed  in  something  they  had 
stumbled  upon.  Hardly  a  day  passed  but  somebody  was  run 
over  by  a  hack  ;  and  so  interesting  was  the  reading-matter  that 
they  hardly  noticed  the  accident.  The  colonel  was  the  most 
talented  man  with  a  pair  of  scissors  that  I  ever  saw.  All  the 
subscribers  in  the  west  end  of  town  quit  taking  the  paper. 
They  picked  up  their  education  on  the  streets.  They  had  no 
need  of  the  newspaper.  They  found  all  the  news  they  wanted 
as  they  went  along.  A  great  many  made  large  scrap-books 
from  the  material  furnished  them  by  the  colonel  and  the  Gulf 
breeze.  That  was  kept  up  all  summer,  and  until  it  got  to  be 
too  cold  to  keep  the  windows  open." 


AN  EXCITED  PATRON.  6ll 

"  Do  you  like  the  position  of  local  editor  ? " 

"  If  a  local  editor  tries  to  please  everybody,  he  is  going  to 
make  a  failure  of  it.  It  requires  a  great  deal  of  experience 
to  find  out  what  people  want.  For  instance :  one  day  an  old 
patron  of  the  paper,  living  in  the  country,  came  into  town  for 
relaxation.  He  relaxed  himself,  galloped  his  horse  through 
the  principal  streets,  yelling,  and  shooting  off  his  pistol.  It 
took  five  policemen  to  show  him  the  way  to  the  bastile.  As 
he  was  a  friend  to  the  paper,  I  gave  him  another  name  in  my 
report,  and  toned  down  some  of  the  most  damaging  details  of 
his  spree.  He  was  fined ;  and,  in  the  goodness  of  my  heart,  I 
suppressed  that  fact  entirely.  Now,  what  do  you  suppose  that 
old  outcast  did  ?  " 

"  Gave  you  a  new  suit  of  clothes  ? " 

"Pshaw!" 

"Presented  you  with  a  gold-headed  cane?" 

"That  comes  nearer  it.  After  he  pranced  int  the  office, 
with  blood  in  his  eyes,  he  bawled  out,  '  Stop  my  paper !  I've 
been  taking  it  for  fifteen  years ;  but,  if  ever  I  read  it  again,  I 
hope  I  may  be  hanged.  Here  I  come  to  town,  and  create  the 
biggest  kind  of  a  sensation.  There  hasn't  been  as  much 
enthusiasm  in  the  place  during  the  last  ten  years.  No  telling 
how  many  extra  copies  of  your  blamed  paper  you  have  sold  in 
consequence ;  and  how  do  you  repay  me  for  my  enterprise  ? 
You  go  and  give  the  credit  of  the  whole  affair  to  some  other 
man.  I  don't  believe  there  is  any  such  man  as  you  have  put 
down  there.  You  just  did  it  to  swindle  me,  to  break  me  down 
in  the  estimation  of  my  friends.  You  want  to  disgrace  me. 
You  never  put  in  about  me  shooting  a  piece  off  a  dog's  tail,  and 
me  a-gallopin'.  You  left  out  all  that  part  about  it  having  taken 
five  policemen  two  hours  to  get  me  to  the  lockup.  Why  didn't 
you  put  in  that  I  sassed  the  recorder,  and  dared  him  to  come 
out  into  the  street  ? ' 

"  I  told  the  agitated  patron,"  said  the  reporter,  "  that  we  had 
changed  the  name,  and  left  out  the  worst  items,  so  as  not  to 
hurt  his  feelings.  When  I  told  him  that,  he  at  first  got  mad, 
and  said  I  insulted  him  ;  but  then  the  absurdity  of  his  feelings 
being  hurt  by  newspaper  criticism  struck  him,  and  he  laughed 


612  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

heartily.  He  explained  that  his  object  in  raising  the  row  was  to 
gain  prestige  among  his  people  out  on  the  frontier.  He  was 
running  for  sheriff,  and  wanted  to  make  political  capital ;  and 
we  had  spoiled  his  plans  by  suppressing  his  name.  He  was 
appeased  by  a  promise  to  get  his  name  right  in  the  weekly  edi- 
tion, not  omitting  even  the  most  nauseating  details  ;  and  he 
paid  in  advance  for  two  hundred  copies,  intending  to  circulate 
them  as  a  campaign  document. 

"  On  another  occasion  I  left  out  from  the  recorder's  court 
proceedings  the  name  of  an  old  patron  who  had  been  fined  for 
being  drunk  and  disorderly ;  and,  next  time  he  came  to  town,  he 
complained  too.  His  neighbors,  not  seeing  his  name,  as  usual, 
among  those  who  had  been  fined  for  being  drunk,  insisted  that 
he  had  never  been  to  town  at  all." 

"  You  gave  the  full  particulars  and  correct  name  in  future,  I 
suppose,"  said  the  doctor. 

"  I  tried  that ;  but  it  didn't  answer,  either.  It  made  things  a 
great  deal  worse.  A  post-trader,  who  gave  us  all  his  job-print- 
ing, came  to  town  and  put  up  at  a  hotel,  and,  out  of  gratitude 
for  some  more  job-printing  we  expected  to  get,  I  gave  him  a 
flaming  notice ;  said  it  was  one  of  the  most  important  events 
in  the  city  since  the  fall  of  the  Alamo ;  hoped  that  his  stay 
would  be  as  pleasant  to  him  as  it  would  be  advantageous  to  the 
San  Antonio  mercantile  fraternity.  He  bought  all  his  supplies 
in  San  Antonio. 

"  He  came  around,  raving  like  a  maniac.  He  wanted  his 
paper  stopped.  It  seemed  that  he  had  a  great  many  creditors 
in  town  that  he  didn't  want  to  see.  He  expected  to  pass 
through  without  disturbing  them ;  but,  when  they  read  in  the 
paper  that  he  was  in  town,  they  called  on  him  on  an  average  of 
three  a  minute.  He  informed  our  staff,  that,  when  he  wanted 
his  name  in  the  paper,  he  would  let  us  know.  The  rival  office 
got  two  hundred  dollars'  worth  of  job-printing. 

"  The  only  safe  way  to  do  was  to  call  on  the  man  himself, 
and  ask  him  if  he  wanted  us  to  get  out  an  extra,  announcing 
his  arrival.  Very  often  he  would  reply,  '  No ;  but  you  can 
state  that  I  am  still  at  Fort  Concho,  and  will  not  be  down  for 
six  months.' 


A    CHANGE    OF  ADMINISTRATION.  613 

"I  tell  you,  doctor,  when  it  comes  to  suppressing  intelli- 
gence, the  press  is  a  wonderful  engine." 

"I  should  think,"  said  the  doctor,  "that  it  would  be  very 
difficult  to  find  editors  in  Texas." 

"  Difficult  to  find  editors  in  Texas !  It  is  only  difficult  to 
find  them  when  you  have  a  bill  against  them.  It  all  depends 
on  who  is  looking  for  them.  If  you  mean  that  there  are  very 
few  men  willing  to  assume  the  arduous  and  responsible  duties 
of  the  profession,  then  you  are  mistaken.  Every  man  who  is 
not  a  newspaper-man  believes,  that,  if  he  were  to  take  hold  of 
a  dying  paper,  he  would  soon  have  it  rivalling  '  The  New-York 
Herald.'  I  refer  particularly  to  those  who  have  money,  and 
put  it  in  a  newspaper  for  safe  keeping.  There  is  money  in  the 
newspaper  business  —  if  you  put  it  there." 

"  But  I  should  think  the  paper  would  stop  when  the  appro- 
priations were  exhausted,"  said  the  doctor,  somewhat  bewildered. 

"  It  can't  stop  any  more  than  the  interest  on  a  note  can  stop. 
There  is  a  change  of  administration  at  short  intervals,  but  the 
paper  keeps  right  straight  on.  Every  few  months  there  is  a 
new  editor.  One  editor  is  tendered  a  lucrative  position  on  the 
staff  of  some  sheep-man,  to  herd  sheep  at  the  rate  of  twenty 
dollars  a  month.  What  is  fame  as  a  journalist,  compared  to  all 
that  fatness  ?  The  editor  then  writes  his  valedictory,  to  the 
effect,  that,  owing  to  over-work,  he  has  been  forbidden  by  his 
medical  adviser  to  write  any  more  ;  that  he  needs  rest ;  and  that 
he  will  spend  the  season  where  pure  air  and  exercise  may  bene- 
fit him.  So  he  resigns  his  crown  and  sceptre,  and  leads  a 
happy  and  contented  life,  moulding  the  destinies  of  a  sheep- 
ranch  instead  of  those  of  the  nation.  But,  as  I  told  you, 
when  one  door  shuts,  another  opens.  There  is  always  some 
ambitious  man  aching  to  run  the  paper  for  a  while,  anyhow." 

"  But  is  there  no  offset  to  these  disadvantages  ?  I've  heard 
that  admiring  friends  frequently  present  the  editor  with  gold- 
headed  canes  and  other  valuable  presents,  and  I  am  always 
reading  of  his  being  invited  to  entertainments  and  banquets." 

"  Yes,  that's  what  the  outside  world  thinks.  It  is  a  popular 
delusion  that  congressmen  and  other  public  men  are  continu- 
ally arresting  the  unwilling  editor,  taking  him  to  clothing- 


6 14  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

stores,  and  fitting  him  out  from  head  to  foot,  regarding  it  as  a 
personal  insult  if  the  editor  does  not  pick  out  the  most  expen- 
sive suit  in  the  house.  It  is  also  supposed,  that,  after  the 
editor  is  arrayed  in  his  new  garments,  the  congressman  forces 
open  the  clinched  editorial  fist,  and  places  in  the  palm  thereof 
a  thousand-dollar  check.  That's  why  so  many  men  sigh  to 
become  editors.  Now,  I  have  elected  three  or  four  congress- 
men, and  I  know  all  about  it.  I  started  the  boom,  and  kept  it 
up  until  I  got  them  into  their  seats  in  Congress.  One  day, 
when  there  was  a  large  crowd  present  (I  think  they  had  been 
invited  for  the  occasion),  one  of  the  elected,  knowing  I  did  not 
smoke,  presented  me  with  a  cigar.  No  doubt  the  average 
editor  would  betray  the  country  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  and 
he  often  gets  credit  for  having  done  so." 

"  Then,  you  are  positive  that  there  is  something  else  in  the 
life  of  the  Texas  editor  besides  roses  and  complimentary 
presents,"  said  the  doctor. 

"  Yes :  the  general  impression  is,  that  all  day  long  country 
wagons  are  standing  in  front  of  the  sanctum,  unloading  pump- 
kins and  other  tropical  fruits.  But  the  wagons  are  not  there, 
and  the  editor  is  happy  that  they  are  not.  In  regard  to  the 
entire  newspaper  business,  distance  enchants.  Occasionally  a 
sturdy  old  farmer  brings  in  a  watermelon  for  the  editor.  He 
places  it  on  exhibition  on  the  counter,  where  it  is  to  stay,  for 
the  whole  city  to  come  and  stare  at,  until  it  gets  to  be  too  stale 
to  eat.  The  old  farmer  represents  the  berry  to  be  most  unique, 
and  remorselessly  gives  details  regarding  its  pedigree,  and 
tells  how  he  and  the  climate  succeeded  in  raising  such  a  won- 
derful product. 

"  If  all  the  bankers,  clergymen,  lawyers,  and  the  rest  of  the 
Mite,  do  not  swarm  over  to  the  office  in  battalions,  to  see  with 
their  own  eyes  what  the  old  farmer  can  do,  with  some  slight 
assistance  from  the  soil  and  climate,  he  thinks  the  paper  has 
no  influence.  He  converts  the  sanctum  into  a  public  hall,  and 
delivers  agricultural  addresses  to  all  who  come  in." 

"It  seems  to  me,"  said  the  doctor,  "that  you  are  not  dis- 
posed to  encourage  the  hard-working  tiller  of  the  soil." 

"  He  does  not  need  it.     It  is  the  editor  who  ought  to  have 


THE  FARMER  AND   THE    WATERMELON.       615 


troops  sent  to  his  relief,  and  be  patted  on  the  back.  The  edit- 
or can  bear  up  under  visits  from  the  sheriff :  he  is  used  to 
that.  He  can  smile  when  a  man  comes  in  with  a  gun  to  pro- 
cure an  explanation  of  some  personal  item  ;  but,  when  the 
wagon  of  the  honest  farmer  drives  up,  a  cold  perspiration 
gathers  in  drops  as  big  as  marbles  on  the  editorial  brow.  If 
the  watermelon  were  a  bombshell,  it  would  not  produce  so  much 
consternation.  You 
can  form  some  idea 
as  to  when  the  shell 
will  go  off,  but  you 
can  never  tell  when 
the  old  farmer  and 
his  watermelon  will 
go  off.  If  he  should 
take  a  drop  too 
much  (which  he 
seldom  fails  to  do), 
then,  of  course,  the 
ceremonies  are 
much  more  impres- 
sive. And  all  this 
time  the  printers 
are  calling  for  copy, 
and  the  old  farmer 
keeps  on  delivering 
his  agricultural  ad- 
dress. If  you  inter- 
rupt him,  he  will 
stop  his  paper;  and 

you  are  not  anxious  to  antagonize  the  agricultural  interests  ot 
the  State.  At  the  same  time  two  watermelons  a  day  would 
ruin  the  paper. 

"  I  once  suggested  to  the  editor  of  our  paper,  and  also  to 
the  comptroller  in  charge  of  the  business  department,  that  we 
would  make  money  by  mutilating  the  granger  with  a  club,  and 
getting  out  an  extra,  with  full  particulars  of  the  outrage,  at 
five  cents  a  copy." 


AN    AGRICULTURAL    ADDRESS. 


6i6 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


"What  is  there  so  dreadful  about  the  honest  old  granger?" 
asked  the  doctor. 

"Besides  what  I  have  told  you  of  his  relentless  spirit  of 
persecution,  he  expects  a  lengthy  notice  about  that  watermelon. 
He  stays  over  one  day  so  as  to  get  the  daily  paper  containing 
it.  When  he  reads  the  notice,  he  is  dissatisfied  :  it  abounds  in 
personal  insults,  such  as  not  mentioning  the  year  that  he  came 
to  Texas.  As  he  proceeds  to  read  it,  he  becomes  more  and 
more  exasperated.  There  is  no  mention  of  his  having  taken 
Sam  Houston  aside,  and  advised  him  to  fight,  anyhow,  at  San 

Jacinto.  As  he  gets  through 
reading  the  article,  he  ap- 
proaches the  editor,  and  says, 
'You  haven't  said  a  word 
about  my  beih'  a  candidate 
for  constable.  Last  year  I 
gave  the  other  paper  a  melon 
that  lacked  five  pounds  of 
being  as  heavy  as  this  one, 
and  it  said  I  was  a  gentleman 
of  the  old  school.  No,  gentle- 
men, I  see  you  don't  want  to 
assist  the  struggling  agricul- 
tural interests.'  And,  back- 
ing his  wagon,  he  asks  you  to 
help  him  lift  in  his  water- 
melon. Then  he  takes  it  down  to  the  rival  office. 

"I  reckon,"  continued  our  journalistic  friend,  "that,  like  the 
proprietor  of  the  big  watermelon,  I  am  a  little  too  diffuse. 
Don't  you  want  me  to  go  off  by  myself  somewhere  ? " 

The  doctor  protested,  that,  if  there  was  any  thing  that  pleased 
him  particularly  in  Texas,  it  was  the  utterances  of  the  reporter. 
It  was  so  rare  nowadays,  he  said,  to  find  a  man  who  adhered 
rigidly  to  the  truth,  that,  when  he  met  one  such,  he  loved  to 
listen  to  him. 

"The  Texas  editor  must  have  a  hard  life  of  it,"  said  the 
doctor. 

"Yes:  there  is  'The  Bugle,'  for  instance.     The  new  editor 


GOING    OVER    TO    THE    OPPOSITION. 


A   BANKRUPT  NEWSPAPER. 


617 


always  feels  certain  that  he  is  able  to  revivify  that  debilitated 
newspaper,  and  restore  it  to  vigorous  life.  All  he  can  do,  how- 
ever, only  keeps  it  from  dying.  '  The  Bugle '  still  lives,  although 
it  has  taken  the  sheriff  into  partnership  a  dozen  times. 


LOST    THE    COMBINATION    OF    THE    SAFE. 


"  The  financial  condition  of  the  institution  makes  it  a  part  of 
the  duties  of  the  business-manager  sometimes  to  go  off  fishing 
on  Saturday  evenings,  or  to  lose  the  combination  of  the  safe." 

"'The  Bugle'  must  have  owed  everybody,"  said  the  doctor. 


618  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"  It  was  worse  off  than  that :  it  owed  five  men  out  of  every 
four." 

"  You  mean  four  men  out  of  every  five  ?  " 

"  No  :  I  mean  five  men  out  of  every  four.  I  know  that  of 
my  own  knowledge.  It  may  afterwards  have  succeeded  in 
owing  six  or  seven  men  out  of  every  four ;  but  I  know  of  it 
owing  five  men  out  of  four.  I  heard  them  say  so,"  remarked 
the  newspaper-man  with  much  emphasis. 

"I  don't  understand  that,"  said  the  doctor.  "You  must 
have  a  new  kind  of  arithmetic  down  here." 

The  reporter  was  perfectly  serious.  He  replied,  "  I  would  not 
have  believed  it  myself,  if  I  had  not  seen  it.  One  day  there 
was  a  financial  crisis  in  '  The  Bugle '  office.  There  used  to 
be  a  financial  crisis  —  a  change  of  ministry  —  every  few 
months.  I  was  coming  down  Commerce  Street,  when  I  met 
Copeland,  the  live-stock  editor.  He  said,  '  Have  you  heard 
that  "  The  Bugle "  has  got  the  sheriff  on  its  staff  again  ? ' 

"  I  answered  that  I  had  not,  but  was  in  no  way  surprised. 
Just  then  Clandon,  who  used  to  be  on  a  Houston  paper,  strolled 
up ;  and,  presently,  Gould,  who  was  on  the  '  Express,'  came 
along ;  and  we  all  stood  there,  and  talked  about  '  The  Bugle ' 
and  its  financial  problems.  I  remarked  that  'The  Bugle' 
owed  me  fifty  dollars.  Copeland  said,  '  Put  me  down  for  about 
forty  dollars.  I  am  not  bragging  about  the  amount,  but  1 
don't  care  to  be  left  out  in  the  cold.' 

"  Then  Gould  said  that  '  The  Bugle  '  had  got  into  him  for  a 
hundred  or  so  during  the  time  he  was  local  editor.  Clandon 
spoke  up,  and  said,  '  I've  sued  for  the  two  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  they  owe  me.' 

"  I  exclaimed  then,  '  Here  are  four  of  us,  and  "  The  Bugle  " 
owes  each  one  of  us  :  we  are  all  "Bugle"  sufferers.' 

"Then  Clandon  burst  out  laughing,  and  said,  'There  are 
five.  I've  just  received  a  power-of-attorney  from  Bickley  to 
sue  for  what  they  owe  him  ;  so  he  makes  the  fifth,  as  I  legally 
represent  him.  In  this  crowd  of  four  there  are  five  "  Bugle  " 
sufferers.' " 


THE   OLD  HUNTER. 


619 


CHAPTER    XLIV. 


FREDERICKSBURG  there  was 
added  to  our  party  an  old 
frontiersman,  who  was  going 
to  Austin.  He  had  not  seen  a 
railroad  for  twenty-two  years. 
The  old  man  rode  into  our  camp  one  evening'while  we  were  at 
supper.  From  the  moment  we  first  saw  him  until  he  had  wiped 
his  mouth  on  his  sleeve,  after  sharing  our  supper,  the  only  word 
he  spoke  was,  "Howdy."  He  seemed  to  take  it  for  granted 
that  he  was  welcome,  and  that  he  had  a  right  to  a  share  in  our 
supper. 

The  meal  being  disposed  of,  the  doctor  and  myself  were 
soon  engaged  in  conversation  with  the  old  hunter,  a  veritable 
Leather-stocking.  His  face  seemed  to  be  constructed  of 
leather.  His  small,  keen,  deep-set  eyes,  overshadowed  by 
shaggy,  terrier-like  eyebrows,  and  his  general  appearance, 
made  an  extraordinary  impression  on  the  doctor.  Here  was 
a  man  who  had  hunted,  fought,  and  tramped  over  almost  every 
foot  of  ground,  from  the  Rio  Grande  to  the  Pacific.  He  had 
crossed  the  trackless  "Staked  Plains,"  and  hunted  grizzlies 
among  the  Sierras.  The  doctor  had  a  particular  reason  for 
cultivating  the  acquaintance  of  the  hardy  frontiersman.  As 
the  reader  has,  no  doubt,  already  discovered,  the  doctor 
imagines  that  he  is  a  poet ;  while  the  fact  exists,  that  he  is 
only  about  as  much  a  poet  as  a  cobbler  is  a  shoemaker. 

He  claimed  to  have  written  a  poem  descriptive  of  a  thrilling 
scene  on  the  Staked  Plains.  It  told  of  a  cruel  Mexican  maiden 


620  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

at  the  Presidio,  a  town  on  the  Rio  Grande,  who  promised  at  a 
ball  to  become  the  bride  of  a  young  man,  conditional  on  his 
bringing  her  a  flask  of  water  from  the  Mustang  Spring  on  the 
Llano  Estacado.  I  had  explained  the  geographical  obstacles 
and  the  palpable  absurdities  in  the  alleged  poem.  I  contended 
that  even  the  wildest  kind  of  poetry  ought  to  have  some  slight 
foundation  of  probability.  The  doctor  refused  to  make  any 
change  in  the  poem  until  he  could  consult  some  better  authority 
than  I  was.  He  had  recited  the  thing  all  along  the  road  until 
I  was  sick  at  heart. 

"Now,  doctor,"  said  I,  "here  is  a  man  who  knows  all  about 
Mexicans,  the  same  as  if  he  were  one  himself.  He  has  been 
over  the  Staked  Plains,  and  has  doubtless  officiated  at  many  a 
fandango.  Just  try  your  poem  on  him,  and  see  what  he  says. 
Turn  yourself  loose.  I'll  try  and  stand  it :  I've  got  hardened. 
But  we  had  better  brace  up  the  old  man  first.  Hand  him 
that  flask." 

The  doctor  was  delighted.  At  last  he  would  be  vindicated. 
So  he  recited,  with  much  pathos,  as  follows :  — 

" '  If  I  may  trust  your  love,'  she  cried, 
'  And  you  would  have  me  for  a  bride, 
Ride  over  yonder  plain,  and  bring 
Your  flask  full  from  the  Mustang  Spring; 
Fly,  fast  as  the  western  eagle's  wing, 
O'er  the  Llano  Estacado.' 

"  He  heard,  and  bowed  without  a  word ; 
His  gallant  steed  he  slightly  spurred ; 
He  turned  his  face,  and  rode  away 
Toward  the  grave  of  dying  day, 
And  vanished  with  its  parting  ray 

On  the  Llano  Estacado."  • 

"  Whar  did  all  these  'ere  tuk  place?"  asked  the  old  frontiers- 
man. 

"  In  the  last  verse,  it  says  at  Presidio." 

"  Presidio,"  said  the  old  man,  "  is  on  the  Rio  Grande,  'bout 
five  hundred  miles  south  of  the  Staked  Plains ;  and,  ef  he  was 
to  travel  west,  he  would  fetch  up  on  the  Gulf  of  Californy  some- 


THE  LLANO  E  STAC  ADO. 


621 


whar,  —  the  durndest  place  for  snakes  and  no  grass  you  ever 
seed.  Moreover,  he  could  travel  nowhars  after  dark,  specially 
if  he  was  sarchin'  for  some  pertickler  spring.  Besides,  ef  he 
really  wanted  to  marry  the  gal,  he  mought  have  gone  down  to 
the  river  and  filled  the  flask,  and,  after  playin'  hookey,  brought 
it  back.  How  could  she  tell  what  sort  o'  water  thar  was  in  a 
spring  nobody  could  get  to,  pertickerly  as  all  water  is  mostly 
alike?  I 
know  all 
about  their 
fandangoes : 
I've  been 
thar.  I  nev- 
er n  o  t  i  c  e  d 
that  them 
style  of 
M  e  x  i  c  an 
w  i  m  m  e  n 
what  a  t- 
tends  them 
bailes  was 
ever  anxious 
for  water. 
Now,  ef  the 
flask  had 
some  mes- 
cal in  it, 
which  is 
wusser  than 
Jersey  light- 
ning, thar 

mought  hev  been  some  sense  in  the  thing. — Kurnel,  just  reach 
me  that  flask  some  more."  And  the  old  trapper  refreshed  his 
memory  with  a  strong,  healthy  pull. 

The  doctor  was  somewhat  discouraged,  but  he  proceeded  to 
recite,  — 

"  Night  came,  and  found  him  riding  on ; 
Day  came,  and  still  he  rode  alone. 


ON    THE    LLANO    ESTACADO. 


622 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


He  spared  not  spur,  he  drew  not  rein, 
Across  that  broad,  unchanging  plain, 
Till  he  the  Mustang  Spring  might  gain, 
On  the  Llano  Estacado." 

"So  he  rid  all  night,  hunting  for  a  spring  on  the  Staked 
Plains,  did  he?  He  must  hev  jest  come  out  from  the  States. 
Why,  the  durned  fool  would  have  got  lost,  and  never  come 

nigh  no 
spring.  I 
reckon,  may- 
be, he  fol- 
lered  up  the 
street-lamps 
or  the  tele- 

liMHA     .  J^i7  .JlH  graph-poles. 

Very  likely 
he  stopped 
every  once 
in  a  while, 
and  asked 
a  police- 
man  w  h  a  r 
the  spring 
was." 

Then    the 
old      man 
laughed 
what   was   intended   for    a   very   sarcastic   laugh. 

The  doctor,  with  a  heroism  that  was  truly  sublime,  con- 
tinued, — 

"  A  little  rest,  a  little  draught, 
Hot  from  his  hand,  and  quickly  quaffed : 
His  flask  was  filled,  and  then  he  turned. 
Once  more  his  steed  the  Magues  spurned, 
Once  more  the  sky  above  him  burned, 
On  the  Llano  Estacado." 

"  So  he  got  thar,  did  he  ? "  said  the  old  hunter,  refreshing 
himself  once  more.  "Well,  ef  a  feller  could  start  out  over 


DOCTOR    READING    POEM. 


THE   CRUEL  MEXICAN  MAIDEN.  623 

night,  and  find  the  place  in  the  dark,  thar  must  hev  been  a  big 
waggin-road.  It  seems  he  got  thar  next  morning.  I've  rid 
three  days  and  nights  without  no  water,  and  didn't  think  any 
thing  of  it.  After  his  horse  had  filled  up  and  ate  some  grass, 
he  orter  got  back  that  night.  So  I  don't  see  nothing  to  make 
no  poetry  or  other  fuss  about.  He  didn't  hev  no  trouble  gitting 
back,  did  he  ?  He  could  make  the  trip  by  daylight,  that  is,  ef 
the  Staked  Plains  was  in  Mexico ;  but,  bein'  whar  they  are,  he 
would  hev  ter  travel  about  two  weeks  before  he  could  get  to 
the  outside  edge  of  'em.  Look  here,  stranger,  I'm  an  old  man, 
and  I  don't  want  no  tricks.  Ef  you  think,  because  I'm  sorter 
old  and  feeble,  you  can  get  off  any  of  them  rigmaroles  on  me, 
thar  will  be  a  difficulty  right  hyar,  now."  And  he  glanced 
significantly  at  a  Winchester  rifle. 

I  calmed  him  down  with  a  drink,  and  explained  to  him  that 
the  doctor  was  merely  in  pursuit  of  information,  while  the 
doctor,  in  a  tremulous  tone,  read,  — 

"  How  hot  the  quivering  landscape  glowed ! 
His  brain  seemed  boiling  as  he  rode. 
Was  it  a  dream,  a  drunken  one, 
Or  was  he  really  riding  on  ? 
Was  that  a  skull  that  gleamed  and  shone 
On  the  Llano  Estacado  ? 

" '  Brave  steed  of  mine,  brave  steed ! '  he  cried, 
'  So  often  true,  so  often  tried, 
Bear  up  a  little  longer  yet.' 
His  mouth  was  black  with  blood  and  sweat : 
Heaven !  how  he  longed  his  lips  to  wet, 
On  the  Llano  Estacado ! 

"And  still,  within  his  breast,  he  held 
The  precious  flask  so  lately  filled. 
Oh  for  a  drink !  but  well  he  knew, 
If  empty  it  should  meet  her  view, 
Her  scorn  ;  but  still  his  longing  grew, 
On  the  Llano  Estacado. 

"  His  horse  went  down.     He  wandered  on, 
Giddy,  blind,  beaten,  and  alone. 


624  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

While  upon  cushioned  couch  you  lie, 
Oh,  think  how  hard  it  is  to  die 
Beneath  the  cruel,  unclouded  sky 
Of  the  Llano  Estacado ! 


"  At  last  he  staggered,  stumbled,  fell,  — 
His  day  was  done,  he  knew  full  well, — 
And  raising  to  his  lips  the  flask, 
The  end,  the  object,  of  his  task, 
Drank  to  her :  more  she  could  not  ask. 
Ah  !  the  Llano  Estacado  ! 

"  That  night,  at  the  Presidio, 
Beneath  the  torchlight's  wavy  glow, 
She  danced,  and  never  thought  of  him, 
The  victim  of  a  woman's  whim, 
Lying,  with  face  upturned  and  grim, 
On  the  Llano  Estacado." 


As  soon  as  the  doctor  finished,  the  old  frontiersman  chuckled 
until  we  thought  he  was  going  to  have  a  fit ;  and  the  doctor 
was  evidently  very  much  depressed  because  he  did  not.  I 
asked  the  old  Leather-stocking  if  it  was  not  possible  for  the 
man  to  have  perished  on  the  Staked  Plains.  He  said,  — 

"  I  understand  the  hull  thing.  The  fellow  had  been  sent,  for 
a  flask  of  mescal,  to  the  Mustang  Spring, — the  name  of  the 
benzinery  probably.  That  mescal  was  powerful  stuff.  I  hev 
had  some  experience.  He  likely  got  on  his  horse  with  the  flask, 
and,  after  whooping  around  the  presidio,  fell  off,  and  had  a  devil 
of  a  time  generally,  until  he  was  scooped  up  by  the  police ; 
and  then  he  must  hev  writ  that  stuff  before  his  head  got  clear 
next  mornin'.  That's  mostly  the  way  with  poetry.  I've  noticed 
you  can't  mostly  tell  whether  the  galoot  what  made  it  was 
drunk,  or  jest  gittin'  over  a  drunk,  when  he  writ  it,  it's  so 
tangled  up,  an'  never  no  sense  in  it,  nohow.  Gimme  another 
pull  at  that  flask  of  water  from  the  Mustang  Spring." 

The  doctor  had  strolled  off  before  the  criticism  was  finished. 

The  old  hunter  told  us  that  he  was  going  to  Austin  to  try 
and  find  a  man  who  had  lent  him  ten  dollars  twenty  years  be- 
fore. "  I  hev  been  a-huntin'  of  him,"  said  he,  "  fur  years ;  an'  I 


THE    GENTLEMAN  FROM  GALVESTON.         625 

heerd  of  him  in  one  place,  and  then  in  t'other,  but  I've  never 
ketched  up  with  him  yet." 

"What  do  you  want  to  do  with  the  man  when  you  catch 
him?  —  want  to  borrow  another  ten  dollars  from  him?"  said 
the  reporter. 

"No.     I  want  to  pay  him  back  the  ten  dollars." 

"  Pay  back  what  you  borrowed  twenty  years  ago  !  I  didn't 
think  people  ever  did  that.  I'm  afraid  some  of  my  debtors  will 
take  more  than  twenty  years  to  find  me." 

"I  thought  newspaper  reporters  never  lent  any  money,"  I 
suggested. 

"Sometimes  they  do,"  said  the  reporter  sadly.  "It  is  only 
a  month  or  two  ago  that  I  had  some  unfortunate  experience. 

"  A  man  borrowed  two  dollars  and  a  half  of  me,  under  prom- 
ise of  paying  it  back  in  two  weeks.  He  said,  '  Of  course  I'll 
pay  it  back  :  I  wouldn't  for  the  world  have  you  write  me  up  in 
your  sarcastic  style  —  not  for  forty  dollars.' 

"  The  facts  are  about  as  follows  :  some  two  months  ago  1 
went  down  to  the  office  about  ten  o'clock.  The  editor  told  me 
that  '  there  has  been  a  man  here  five  or  six  times  to  see  you. 
He  says  he  is  connected  with  the  Galveston  "  News." ' 

"  '  Who  does  the  gentleman  look  like  ? '  I  asked. 

" '  He  does  not  look  like  he  had  ever  been  a  gentleman,'  was 
the  ungrammatical  and  candid  reply. 

"  I  arrived  at  home  about  twelve  o'clock  ;  and  the  first  thing 
the  lady  of  the  house  said  was,  '  There  has  been  a  fellow  here 
four  times  to  see  you.  He  says  he  is  connected  with  the  Gal- 
veston "  News."  ' 

"  '  What  sort  of  a  looking  gentleman  is  he  ? ' 

"  '  He  looks  like  a  tramp.' 

"Just  then  there  was  a  knock  at  the  door,  and  the  gentleman 
from  Galveston  was  shown  into  the  parlor.  He  was  tall,  seedy- 
looking,  and  wore  a  rather  singular  cap  with  a  peak  to  it.  He 
also  wore  a  long,  peaked,  insinuating  nose ;  and  his  whole  ap- 
pearance was  decidedly  malarious.  Knowing  that  the  Galveston 
'  News '  was  one  of  the  leading  papers  in  the  South,  I  asked, 
rather  incredulously,  if  the  gentleman  was  a  representative  of 
the  Galveston  'News.'  Then  he  stretched  forth  his  hand,  and 
40 


626  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

spoke  for  himself.  He  was  not  exactly  a  representative  of  the 
'News,'  but  he  had  been  connected  with  the  paper.  From  the 
way  he  talked,  one  might  have  thought  that  he  was  the  original 
founder.  He  had  been  a  printer  on  the  'News,'  but  he  had 
been  discharged.  He  had  frequently  set  up  very  amusing  arti- 
cles that  I  had  written  for  that  paper.  He  thought  them  the 
best  things  he  had  ever  read.  It  soon  began  to  dawn  on  me, 
that,  in  spite  of  his  unattractive  wearing-apparel,  my  visitor 
was  a  man  of  fine  literary  tastes  and  excellent  judgment.  He 
also  thought  I  could  draw  five  thousand  people,  if  I  would  only 
consent  to  deliver  a  lecture.  San  Antonio  was  too  small  for 
me :  in  fact,  Texas  was  not  large  enough.  I  ought  to  go  to 
New  York.  I  began  to  think  the  stranger  very  much  of  a  gen- 
tleman, and  hesitated  to  interrupt  the  flow  of  his  eloquence. 
He  then  touched  lightly  on  his  own  financial  complications. 
After  he  had  been  discharged  from  the  '  News,'  he  determined 
to  visit  San  Antonio,  as  he  had  never  seen  the  sacred  spot 
where  the  heroes  of  the  Alamo  laid  down  their  lives.  On  ar- 
riving at  San  Antonio,  he  found  himself  without  a  cent.  He 
had  been  obliged  to  pawn  his  garments,  and  he  showed  me  a 
pawn-ticket.  He  did  not  know  anybody  in  the  Alamo  City  but 
myself,  and  me  only  through  my  literary  reputation,  which 
extended,  he  said,  from  Canada  to  Texas ;  but,  on  account  of 
our  connection  with  the  '  News,'  he  would  ask  a  temporary 
loan  of  two  dollars  and  a  half,  to  pay  his  fare  from  Harwood  to 
Cuero,  where  a  very  lucrative  position  awaited  him.  I  am  not 
remarkably  bright  at  figures,  but  it  seemed  to  me  that  there 
was  a  missing  link  somewhere.  I  failed  to  perceive  clearly  the 
missing  link,  that  connected  a  pecuniary  responsibility  on  my 
part  to  pay  the  travelling-expenses  of  an  intelligent  compositor, 
merely  because  he  had  been  discharged  by  the  'News.'  But 
my  contemporary,  so  to  speak,  drew  forth  a  late  copy  of  the 
'News,'  and  began  a  most  flattering  commentary  on  an  article 
of  mine  that  it  contained.  To  cut  matters  short,  he  got  the 
money,  upon  his  agreeing  to  refund  it  within  two  weeks.  He 
is  doubtless  numbered  with  the  dead,  for  he  has  never  refunded 
it.  I  did  not  suffer  much  on  account  of  the  loss  of  the  money, 
but  there  were  other  mortifying  experiences. 


A    TEMPORARY  LOAN.  627 

"  Immediately  after  I  had  parted  with  my  admirer,  and  bade 
a  farewell  to  my  two  dollars  and  a  half,  I  had  some  conversation 
with  my  wife. 

"  '  Did  you  lend  that  fellow  any  money?' 

" '  Y-e-s.' 

•' '  How  much  ? ' 

"'Only  two  and  a  half.' 

" '  I  had  a  presentiment  that  that  was  what  he  was  after. 
Hand  out  the  rest  of  that  money.  You  are  not  to  be  trusted 
with  money,  anyhow.  Two  dollars  and  a  half !  And  there's 
Alex,  needs  a  new  coat,  and  the  taxes  are  not  paid.  What's 
his  name  ? ' 

"  '  I  forgot  ta  ask  him  :  he  seems  to  be  a  very  clever  gentle- 
man.' 

"'A  tramp,  that's  what  he  is.  We  ought  to  have  a  big  sign 
put  up,  "  Money  lent,  and  no  questions  asked."  I  reckon  he 
told  you  that  he  had  read  those  articles  of  yours  in  the  "News." 
I  knew  that  sneak  would  soft-soap  you.' 

"  This  was  not  all ;  but  the  foregoing  is  a  fair  sample.  The 
children  had  been  contemplating  the  purchase  of  a  Mexican 
donkey  to  ride  about  on,  and  were  saving  up  money  for  that 
purpose.  Next  time  one  of  them  brought  up  the  subject,  I 
caught  the  significant  remark,  '  There  is  really  no  occasion  for 
another  donkey  about  the  house.'  From  the  direction  of  her 
eyes,  I  inferred  that  the  remark  was  intended  for  me. 

"From  that  time  on,  every  thing  that  was  purchased  for 
household  expenses  was  measured  by«the  standard  of  two 
dollars  and  a  half,  the  amount  I  had  temporarily  lent  that  dis- 
tinguished stranger  from  Galveston.  I  learned,  that,  for  two 
dollars  and  a  half,  you  could  buy  meat  for  four  days,  or  a  load  of 
wood,  or  a  pair  of  shoes  for  the  baby,  or  two  new  calico  dresses. 
Never  before  did  I  appreciate  how  much  could  be  obtained  for 
a  small  sum  in  cash. 

"  I  mentioned  that  it  was  a  mere  temporary  loan,  but  was 
told  it  would  be  more  in  the  nature  of  a  permanent  investment, 
which,  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  was,  I  think,  a  correct 
prophecy. 

"  I  saw  my  friend  and  benefactor  next  day,  but  he  was  not  in 


628 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


a  condition  to  transact  business  ;  and  I  have  not  seen  or  heard 
of  him  since." 

So  ended  the  reporter's  narrative. 

I  had  a  queer  experience  the  night  the  doctor  read  his  poem. 
We  were  camped  on  the  prairie.  I  was  lying  on  my  back,  look- 
ing up  at  the  sky,  and  wondering  if  there  were  really  enough 
poets  in  the  world,  when  my  attention  was  called  to  an  extraor- 
dinary phenomenon.  A  peculiarly  shaped  cloud  seemed  to 
reach  down  from  the  sky,  and  then  draw  itself  up  again.  I 

was  very  much  interested 
in  this  meteorological  per- 
turbation, which  I  attrib- 
uted at  first  to  atmos- 
pheric influences  ;  then  it 
occurred  to  me  that  the 
peculiar  cloud  or  water- 
spout might  be  nearer 
than  the  distant  horizon. 
I  took  off  my  hat,  and 
found  that  my  surmise 
was  correct.  Fastened  to 
the  rim  of  the  hat  by  its 
hind-claws  was  a  charming 
little  centipede  about  nine 
inches  long.  The  peculiar 
meteorological  phenomena 
were  produced  by  the  in- 
sect drawing  itself  up,  and  letting  itself  down,  in  its  efforts  to 
find  a  nose  or  some  other  feature  to  hang  on  to,  in  order  to 
facilitate  its  descent.  The  centipede  is  built  on  the  iron-clad 
plan. 

Its  head,  or  bow,  comparing  it  to  an  iron-clad,  is  armed  with 
a  pair  of  pincers,  which,  besides  being  as  venomous  as  the 
editor  of  a  party  organ,  can  bite  the  end  off  an  iron  safe. 
Each  side  is  armed  with  about  forty  short  legs,  and  each  leg  is 
armed  with  a  sting  like  that  of  a  wasp.  The  centipede  termi- 
nates in  a  pair  of  hooks,  which,  like  its  pincers,  are  red  hot  —  so 
I  have  been  told  by  an  innocent  young  man,  who  undertook  to 


THE   CENTIPEDE. 


THE  DEVIL'S  HORSE.  629 

pick  one  up  by  its  stem.  When  a  centipede  anchors  his  head 
in  the  fleshy  anatomy  of  a  human  being,  throws  out  his  two 
grappling-irons  from  his  rear,  and  then  draws  its  eighty  odd, 
very  odd,  claws  together,  it  will  bring  tears  to  the  heart  of  an 
Irish  landlord  to  see  how  the  little  pet  holds. 

The  bite  of  the  centipede  rarely  causes  death,  but  it  makes 
the  bitten  party  wish  he  were  dead,  — for  a  short  time,  at  least, 
—  and  it  leaves  an  ugly  sore.  The  statement  that  the  bite  of 
the  centipede  does  not  cause  death  is  liable  to  correction.  The 
centipede  is  very  apt  to  become  a  "remains,"  after  it  bites  a 
person,  as  there  is  quite  a  prejudice  against  it.  For  this  reason, 
it  is  very  much  secluded  in  its  habits,  living  in  retirement 
among  the.  rocks  of  old  buildings.  Its  diet  is  believed  to  be 
insects  that  are  not  as  heavily  armed  and  iron-clad  as  it  is. 
Why  centipedes  were  created  in  the  first  place,  and  what  good 
purpose  they  serve,  are  profound  mysteries  to  the  ordinary 
intellect. 

They  are  comparatively  rare  in  the  well-settled  portion  of 
Texas,  being  usually  found  in  a  bottle  of  alcohol  on  the  show- 
case of  some  druggist  who  has  a  taste  for  the  beautiful.  In 
this  particular,  centipedes  differ  from  some  men.  They  are 
much  more  peaceful  and  harmless  when  in  liquor  than  other- 
wise. With  centipedes,  as  with  Indians,  the  only  good  ones  are 
those  that  are  dead. 

Another  of  the  most  peculiar  and  interesting  insects  in 
Texas  is  called  the  "  devil's  horse."  How  he  came  by  that 
name  we  are  unable  to  state.  He  is,  however,  an  old  resident  of 
Texas,  having  lived  in  this  State  during  the  days  of  the  Repub- 
lic of  Texas  ;  and,  as  is  frequently  the  case  with  early  settlers, 
his  antecedents  are  involved  in  much  mystery.  For  all  I  know 
to  the  contrary,  there  may  be  indictments  under  another  name 
pending  against  the  devil's  horse  in  Arkansas. 

I  will  not  rake  over  the  ashes  of  the  past,  or  revive  unpleas- 
ant memories,  but  proceed  to  describe  the  manner  and  customs 
of  this  mysterious  bug. 

The  appearance  of  the  devil's  horse  is  very  much  against 
him,  as  he  resembles  man  more  than  any  other  insect.  His 
head  shows  a  wonderful  development  of  the  bump  of  reverence, 


630 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


which  may  account  for  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  he  carries 
his  fore-legs.  He  holds  them  up  in  front  of  him  as  if  he  were 
engaged  in  prayer,  and  for  this  reason  he  is  called  "the  praying 
insect,"  and  is  respected  accordingly.  It  is  a  fact,  that,  like 
some  other  people  who  make  a  great  outward  show  of  religion, 
the  devil's  horse  does  the  most  of  his  praying  with  his  hands  : 
he  uses  his  hands  to  seize  his  prey,  and  convey  it  to  his  mouth. 
The  head  of  this  insect  is  perched  on  a  long  neck,  and  seems 
to  revolve  on  a  pivot.  His  wings,  which  go  to  conform  with  his 
angelic  nature,  in  spite  of  his  diabolical  appellation,  resemble 

the  long  coat-tails  of  the 
clerical  garment.  If  part 
of  the  hind-legs  of  the  in- 
sect were  shoved  into  a 
pair  of  black  pants,  and 
his  long  neck  were  band- 
aged up  with  a  white  tie, 
the  resemblance  of  this 
unique  insect  to  a  New- 
England  deacon  of  a  Cal- 
vinistic  turn  of  mind  would 
be  absolutely  startling.  As 
it  is,  while  you  look  at  the 
devil's  horse,  you  are  sur- 
prised that  he  does  not  get 
up  and  pass  the  hat  around. 

I  wish  I  could  make  more  favorable  comment  on  the  moral 
attributes  of  this  interesting  insect ;  but  I  cannot  do  so  consci- 
entiously, as  he  has  no  sense  of  propriety  whatever.  He  seems 
to  think  that  man's  lower  extremities  were  constructed  espe- 
cially to  afford  devil's  horses  opportunities  to  climb,  which 
uncalled-for  familiarity  is  usually  resented  on  the  spot,  with 
disastrous  results  to  the  intruder. 

The  devil's  horse  is  a  great  seeker  after  light.  When  the 
lights  are  placed  in  the  parlor,  and  the  stars  in  the  blue  azure 
sky,  the  devil's  horse  crawls  in  through  the  shutters,  and  moves 
about  in  as  annoying  a  manner  as  if,  he  were  the  landlord,  and 
there  were  several  months'  back  rent  unpaid.  He  seems  to 


THE    DEVIL'S    HORSE. 


THE  DEVIL'S  HORSE,  631 

like  music ;  and,  if  anybody  is  playing  on  the  piano,  he  will 
perch  upon  the  music-rack,  and,  turning  his  ridiculous  head  on 
one  side,  will  appear  to  pay  as  close  attention  as  if  he  had  com- 
posed the  piece  himself. 

If,  in  resenting  any  familiarity,  you  strike  the  insect,  he  will 
place  his  hand  to  the  back  of  his  head,  if  that  is  the  injured 
part,  and  roll  his  eyes  around  at  you  in  a  reproachful  manner. 

The  redeeming  trait  in  the  character  of  the  devil's  horse  is 
his  animosity  to  those  other  nuisances,  flies  and  mosquitoes. 
He  seizes  the  hapless  mosquito  with  his  claws ;  and,  having 
removed  the  wings  and  legs,  he,  without  saying  grace  at  all,  eats 
the  body  in  successive  bites,  and  winks  at  you  as  he  does  it. 


632 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    XLV. 


WE  drew  near  Austin,  we  passed 
through  a  country  that  showed 
few  indications  of  being  close 
to  the  capital  of  the  State. 
There  were  farms  here  and 
there,  and  sheep  and  cattle 
ranches  on  the  banks  of  the 
creeks  ;  but  most  of  the  coun- 
try was  open  prairie,  or  rough, 
cedar-covered  hills. 

The  labor  on  most  of  the 
farms  around  Austin  is  done 
by  negroes.  The  field -hand 
of  slavery  times  is  the  negro 
farmer  of  to-day  in  the  South. 
Those  who  were  house-servants, 
and  the  post-bellum  generation, 
have  developed  into  city  bar- 
bers, hotel-waiters,  and  preachers  ;  but  the  negro  whose  early 
years  were  spent  between  the  cotton-rows,  still  inhabits  the 
rural  districts,  and  farms  "on  the  shares."  In  theory,  farming 
on  shares  is  a  good  thing  for  the  colored  agriculturalist.  A 
white  man  furnishes  land,  teams,  and  implements  ;  the  negro 
furnishes  the  labor ;  the  crops,  when  harvested,  to  be  divided 
equally  between  landlord  and  tenant.  In  practice,  and  in  the 
division  of  the  shares,  it  does  not  work  so  satisfactorily  for  the 
tenant.  The  landlord  gets  the  first  share ;  the  storekeeper, 


THE    COLORED  FARMER. 


633 


who  furnished  coffee,  bacon,  and  clothing  for  the  tenant,  while 
he  was  making  the  crop,  gets  the  other  share ;  and  the  tenant, 
for  his  share,  gets  cussed  because  he  did  not  make  more  cotton 
and  corn.  The  negro  farmer  has  been  heard  to  hint,  that,  if  he 
could  afford  to  keep  a  book-keeper,  his  share  might  be  more 
satisfactory  to  himself. 

The  colored  farmer  is  always  fat,  and  out  of  chewing-tobacco. 
He  wears 
mud-colored 
clothes,  with 
black  patch- 
es on  the 
knees.  He 
is  usually 
possessed 
with  a  wild 
and  uncon- 
trollable de- 
sire to  move 
slowly ;  and, 
with  a  cheer- 
ful resigna- 
tion, he  will 
endure  ten 
hours  of 
sleep  out  of 
the  twenty- 
four,  and 
has  no  am- 
bition to  become  rich  or  to  own  land.  He  is  satisfied  if  he 
can  get  enough  corn-bread,  bacon,  and  coffee  to  feed  his  family. 
If  he  can  make  a  living  by  working  two  days  in  the  week,  he 
will  not  work  three.  There  is  no  mortal  more  contented  and 
happy.  No  calamity  to  the  crop  will  ruffle  his  serenity ;  because 
he  has  nothing  to  lose,  and  only  a  living  to  make.  He  is  calm 
and  placid  in  presence  of  wire-grass  in  the  cotton,  unruffled  and 
tranquil  when  surrounded  by  cockleburrs,  patient  and  submis- 
sive when  it  rains  (so  that  he  cannot  work),  resigned  and  serene 


THE    COUNTRY    NEGRO. 


634  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

when  the  cow  gets  into  the  corn ;  and  he  will  at  any  time  curb 
a  turbulent  desire  to  hoe  out  ten  acres  of  cotton,  suppress  a 
delirious  craving  to  grub  up  roots,  and  choke  back  an  impatient 
longing  to  destroy  a  patch  of  weeds,  if  the  clouds  show  indica- 
tions that  catfish  will  bite. 

The  colored  agriculturalist  never  allows  pleasure  to  interfere 
with  business.  Of  course,  it  would  be  more  to  his  taste  to  hoe 
out  weeds ;  but  stern  duty  demands  his  attention  at  the  creek, 
where  the  catfish  is  waiting  to  bite.  With  praiseworthy  alacrity 
he  will  obey  the  call  of  duty,  and  dig  up  "wu'ms"  and  craw- 
fish for  bait,  and  trudge  cheerfully  to  the  creek,  where  he  will 
toil  diligently  under  the  shade  of  a  tree  through  the  weary 
hours  of  a  long  summer  day. 

The  colored  farmer  is  never  too  poor  to  own  a  horse.  He 
may  be  unprovided  with  shoes,  and  may  be  destitute  in  the 
matter  of  a  shirt ;  yet  he  will,  nevertheless,  own  a  ten-dollar 
horse.  The  animal  may  be  a  superannuated  plug,  an  unabridged 
edition  of  all  the  ills  that  horse-flesh  is  heir  to,  and  fit  only  for 
the  bone-mill ;  yet,  if  by  the  most  liberal  interpretation  of  the 
world  he  can  be  called  a  horse,  his  owner  feels  that  he  has 
advanced  a  step  in  the  Darwinian  race  toward  a  higher  life : 
and  when  he  borrows  a  pistol  and  a  pair  of  spurs,  and  rides  to 
town  on  Saturdays,  he  feels  that  he  is  indeed  one  of  a  nation 
of  sovereigns,  previous  condition  to  the  contrary  notwithstand- 
ing. The  country  darkey  is  not  quite  so  uniformly  dissipated 
in  the  matter  of  religious  observances  as  his  city  brother,  but 
in  the  course  of  a  year  he  makes  up  a  fair  average.  The  camp- 
meeting  is  where  he  comes  out  strong.  These  meetings  last 
usually  from  ten  days  to  three  weeks,  and  occur  annually.  His 
anxiety  to  take  advantage  of  this  means  of  grace,  and  of  the 
watermelon-patches  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  camp-ground, 
is  so  great,  that,  in  his  religious  zeal,  he  sacrifices  his  worldly 
interests,  and  allows  his  crops  to  "  get  in  the  grass,"  and  his 
neighbors'  cows  to  get  into  the  crops.  He  feels  that  his 
never-dying  soul  is  of  more  importance  than  his  share  of  the 
crop  will  be,  after  the  landlord  and  the  storekeeper  get  their 
share.  The  colored  farmer  does  not  grieve  over  the  glories  of 
the  past,  as  the  white  farmer  of  the  South  does.  His  *ambi- 


THE   "DOWN-TRODDEN  AFRICAN: 


635 


tion  aims  no  higher  than  to  get  enough  to  eat  in  the  present, 
and  he  cares  not  for  the  future  or  the  past.  One  of  his  favor- 
ite sayings  is,  "  De  hoecake  ob  to-day  am  better  dan  de  puddin' 
ob  las'  Sunday." 

The  "  down-trodden  African  "  who  lives  in  the  cities  is 
brighter,  not  only  in  intellect,  but  in  color,  than  his  brother  on 
the  farm.  Besides  having  colored  policemen,  Texas  can  boast 
of  colored  militia  companies,  whose  arms  are  furnished  by  the 
State.  One 
of  these 
companies 
at  San  An- 
tonio  is 
called  the 
"  Coke  Ri- 
fles," not 
because  of 
the  near 
app  roach 
to  coal  in 
the  com- 
plexion of 
the  mem- 
bers, but 
in  honor 
of  Senator 
Coke  of 
Texas. 

These  negro  militia  companies  parade  with  all  the  pomp  and 
circumstance  of  war;  and  no  objection  is  raised,  so  thoroughly 
reconstructed  have  the  people  of  Texas  become.  These  dusky 
sons  of  Mars,  like  congressmen,  have  sham-battles,  which  look 
very  dangerous,  but  are  really  only  child's  play.  On  every  pos- 
sible occasion  the  down-trodden  colored  man  obtrudes  himself 
upon  the  public  eye  and  ear.  He  is  never  bulldozed  and  de- 
prived of  his  natural  and  civil  rights,  as  he  is  in  the  East,  where 
the  infernal  spirit  of  caste  has  not  yet  been  cast  out. 

I  might  go  on  indefinitely,  showing,  that  as  far  as  giving  the 


THE    COKE    RIFLES. 


636 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


colored  man,  not  only  his  rights,  but  those  of  other  people,  no 
capital  can  be  made  for  the  Republican  party  in  Texas.  Not 
long  since  a  Philadelphia  man,  who  had  never  been  South 
much,  rode  in  an  Austin  street-car.  From  time  to  time  he 
would  hold  his  nose  ;  and  he  innocently  asked  one  of  the 
colored  men  in  the  car,  "  How  many  more  leaky  gas-pipes  are 
we  going  to  pass  ? "  Several  of  the  colored  gentlemen  in  the 
car  imagined  that  this  was  a  personal  allusion  :  so  they  ejected 
from  the  car,  with  violence,  the  Northern  gentleman,  who  had 

been  in  the  habit  of  talking 
about  the  injustice  with  which 
the  South  treated  the  negro. 
While  at  Austin  one  morn- 
ing, at  a  very  early  hour,  I 
heard  a  succession  of  violent 
explosions.  Everybody  in 
the  city  was  aroused  from 
the  slumber  to  which  they 
are  entitled  by  law.  The  ex- 
plosions startled  everybody. 
They  gave  everybody  an 
early  start.  It  was  not  later 
than  half-past  four.  The  peo- 
ple were  puzzled.  Some 
thought  it  was  thunder,  and 
thousands  of  respectable  peo- 
ple went  out  for  the  purpose  of  fixing  the  pipes  to  catch  cistern- 
water.  Others  contented  themselves  with  wondering  how  the 
Fourth  of  July  happened  to  fall,  this  year,  so  late  in  the  season. 
What  does  the  Northern  reader  suppose  was  the  cause  of  all 
this  racket  ?  It  was  the  down-trodden  negro  firing  a  salute 
with  a  cannon,  borrowed  from  the  Democratic  governor  of  the 
State  of  Texas.  How  is  that  for  oppression  of  the  negro  in 
Texas  ?  The  Dark  Rising  Sons  of  Liberty,  a  colored  organiza- 
tion of  some  kind,  were  celebrating  their  anniversary  :  so  they 
took  the  liberty  of  disturbing  everybody  within  a  radius  of  three 
miles,  at  half-past  four  A.M.,  with  an  old  piece  of  artillery. 
That  looks  like  bulldozing  the  poor  negro,  does  it  not  ? 


THE    DOWN-TRODDEN    AFRICAN. 


A    CAMEL-RANCH.  637 

In  Texas  the  negro  has  really  got  more  civil  rights  than  are 
good  for  him.  He  can  carry  on  any  legitimate  business.  In 
proof  of  this  assertion,  I  would  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
there  are  colored  gambling-establishments  in  the  larger  cities 
in  Texas.  These  establishments  are  granted  the  same  immu- 
nity from  police  interference  that  is  allowed  the  white  gambling- 
houses.  If  a  negro  has  money,  or  political  influence,  and  he 
commits  a  murder,  his  neck  is  just  as  safe  as  that  of  -a  white 
man  under  similar  circumstances. 

As  far  as  depriving  the  negro  of  his  vote  is  concerned,  white 
Democrats  have  no  such  desire.  On  the  contrary,  they  some- 
times encourage  the  colored  voter  to  vote  as  often,  and  in  as 
many  different  places,  as  is  possible  on  election-day.  Is  this 
what  you  call  bulldozing  the  poor  colored  man  ? 

In  conclusion,  I  will  state  that  there  is  in  Texas  a  disposition, 
on  the  part  of  some  of  the  most  influential  Democrats,  to  do 
every  thing  in  their  power  to  improve  the  colored  race ;  and 
the  fact  that  in  the  larger  cities,  and  particularly  in  .Houston, 
many  of  the  negroes  are  nearly  white,  should  certainly  con- 
vince the  most  sceptical  that  there  is  no  prejudice  against  the 
race. 

In  a  pasture  near  Austin  we  saw  about  twenty  camels.  In 
our  journeyings  through  Texas  we  had  seen  many  strange 
things,  but  nothing  so  strange  and  foreign  as  a  camel-rancho. 
To  meet  a  camel  in  a  menagerie  is  not  surprising ;  but  to 
come  suddenly  on  a  herd  of  camels,  quietly  grazing  on  an 
American  prairie,  is  certainly  startling. 

In  1857  the  United-States  Government  purchased  forty 
camels  in  Asia  Minor,  and  brought  them  to  the  United  States. 
This  was  in  accordance  with  an  Act  of  Congress,  appropriating 
a  certain  amount  to  enable  the  secretary  of  war  to  try  the 
experiment  of  introducing  camels  on  this  continent  as  beasts 
of  burden,  and  for  military  purposes.  The  pacha  of  the  dis- 
trict from  which  they  were  shipped  presented  ten  camels  to  the 
United  States.  In  May,  1857,  the  fifty  camels,  with  Greek 
and  Arab  attendants,  reached  the  port  of  Indianola,  Tex.,  in 
the  United-States  store-ship  "Supply." 

The  camels  were  first  used  in  transporting  stores  over  the 


638  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

Staked  Plains  and  the  Journada  de  Muerte  (Journey  of  Death), 
for  the  surveying-parties  under  command  of  Gen.  J.  E.  Johnston, 
then  commanding  the  department  of  Texas.  In  four  years  the 
original  fifty  had  increased,  by  birth,  to  one  hundred  and  twenty. 

In  1 86 1  the  Confederates  seized  the  camels  at  Camp  Verde, 
and,  during  the  war,  used  them  in  carrying  cotton  to  Mexico. 
Each  camel  carried  two  bales  of  cotton.  After  the  war  the 
United-States  Government  again  took  possession  of  the  camels, 
and  sold  them  in  three  lots.  Those  that  we  saw  were  being 
bred  and  raised  for  sale,  the  purchasers  being  circus  and  mena- 
gerie men.  The  price  of  a  good  Texas-raised  camel  is  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 

The  Texas  camel  is  a  voracious  feeder.  His  principal  food 
is  the  prickly  leaves  of  the  cactus,  and  the  beans  of  the  mes- 
quite-tree  ;  but  he  does  not  confine  himself  altogether  to  a 
vegetable  diet.  When  opportunity  offers,  he  will  reach  up 
after  the  glass  insulators  of  a  lightning-rod  or  telegraph-pole, 
and  conceal  them  in  his  commissary,  or  he  will  stand  by  the 
hour  meekly  chewing  up  a  wagon-sheet,  when  he  cannot  get  a 
chance  to  eat  the  well-rope  or  a  wheelbarrow. 

A  camel  will  carry  a  man  ninety  miles  from  daylight  to  dark  ; 
but  either  the  camel  or  the  man  requires  to  be  well  padded,  or 
the  rider  will  succumb  under  the  fatigue  consequent  on  the 
jolting  motion  of  the  brute. 

The  chief  objection  to  using  camels  as  beasts  of  burden  in 
Texas  is,  that  horses  usually  run  away  at  sight  of  them.  This 
is  bad  for  the  horses,  and  worse  for  the  pilot  of  the  camel  if 
the  owner  of  the  horses  should  have  his  pistol  with  him. 

The  prickly-pear,  on  which  the  camel  feeds,  belongs  to  the 
slab-sided,  razor-back  breed  of  cactus.  It  can  be  found  in 
Texas  on  the  Rio  Grande,  where  there  is  a  strip  of  territory, 
sixty  miles  long  and  about  twenty  wide,  on  which  nothing  else 
grows  but  prickly-pears ;  and  so  thick  are  they,  that  the  traveller 
cannot  leave  the  road,  which  is  hedged  in  by  them.  When  a 
Western-Texan,  who  has  seen  prickly-pears  every  day  of  his 
life,  afterwards  happens  to  travel  in  Europe,  and  is  shown,  as  a 
great  curiosity,  one  sickly  little  prickly-pear  plant  in  a  flower- 
pot, it  makes,  him  laugh  away  down  in  his  boots. 


ARRIVAL  IN  AUSTIN. 


639 


In  order  to  flourish  luxuriantly,  the  prickly-pear  asks  for  a 
serni-tropical  climate  and  a  poor  soil.  The  more  tropical  the 
climate,  and  the  poorer  the  soil,  the  bigger  and  higher  the  plant 
grows,  and  the  more  thorns  it  has  to  the  square  inch.  Over  in 
Mexico,  where  the  soil  is  poorer  than  an  amateur  concert,  the 
prickly-pear  grows  six  feet  high,  and  the  leaves  are  as  big  as 
those  of  an  extension-table ;  while  in  Texas  it  only  grows  of  a 
convenient  length  to  sit  down  on. 

There  are  some  purposes  that  the  prickly-pear  is  good  for, 
and  there  are  others  for  which  it  is  not.  -The  fruit,  which  is 
about  the  size  and  shape  of  a  hen's  egg,  is  of  a  rich  purple 
color.  It  looks  as  if  it  might  have  a  delicious  taste,  but  a 
moderately  fastidious  hog 
would  elevate  his  nose  at 
it.  The  plant  is  covered 
with  long,  keen  needles  of 
assorted  sizes,  that,  for 
sharpness  and  meanness, 
may  well  cause  the  blush 
of  shame  and  envy  to  man- 
tle the  cheek  of  a  wasp. 
Never  sit  down  on  the  -  — » T^S^aiS 
prickly-pear  bush  to  rest 
yourself.  Take  my  word 

for  it.     I  tried  it  once  accidentally.     It  was  many  years  ago, 
but  the  memory  of  it  haunts  me  still. 

The  prickly-pear  is  useful  to  man  and  beast.  It  can  be 
fed  to  cattle  in  an  emergency,  after  first  burning  off  the 
thorns.  As  a  poultice  for  sores  and  wounds,  it  is  unri- 
valled. 

The  doctor,  the  reporter,  the  old  hunter,  and  myself  arrived 
in  Austin  at  noon,  on  a  cool,  breezy  day.  The  doctor  and  I 
put  our  mustangs  in  the  hands  of  an  auctioneer,  and  then 
placed  ourselves  in  the  hands  of  the  owner  of  a  clothing- 
store. 

We  hardly  recognized  each  other  when  we  got  clothed  in 
the  garments  of  civilization.  I  detected  quite  a  respectful 
tone  in  the  doctor's  first  remarks  to  me  after  I  had  put  on  a 


THE    CACTUS. 


640  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

turned-down  collar.  We  were  actually  polite  to  each  other  for 
an  hour  afterwards. 

Our  little  ponies,  that  had  carried  us  so  far  and  served  us  so 
well,  were  tied  in  front  of  the  auctioneer's  store.  A  placard 
hanging  on  the  back  of  each  informed  the  public  that  they 
were  for  sale.  During  the  hour  we  staid  at  the  auctioneer's 
place  of  business,  we  could  have  disposed  of  the  ponies  twenty 
times.  No  one  offered  us  any  money  for  them,  but  twenty  men 
offered  us  twenty  different  "  trades."  One  man  had  a  miscella- 
neous lot  of  kitchen  furniture,  that  he  offered  to  trade  for  the 
ponies :  and  another  wanted  to  trade  to  the  doctor  an  eight- 
horse  power  threshing-machine  for  his  mustang ;  that  is,  he 
offered  to  let  the  doctor  have  the  machine  for  four  hundred 
dollars,  taking  the  pony  at  twenty-five  dollars,  and  the  balance 
in  cash.  As  we  were  not  prepared  to  begin  house-keeping,  and 
had  no  small  grain-crop  to  harvest,  we  declined  these  trades. 

The  auctioneer's  assistant  rang  a  bell ;  and  the  auctioneer,  rid- 
ing one  of  the  ponies  and  leading  the  other,  howled  around  the 
street  until  fifty  dollars  had  been  offered  and  accepted  for  both 
animals.  It  was  very  affecting  —  our  parting  with  the  two 
mustangs.  We  remembered  the  many  hard  thoughts  we  had 
of  them  at  different  times  during  our  journey,  and  remorse 
was  our  portion. 

The  scenery  around  Austin  is  the  most  beautiful  and  pictur- 
esque in  Texas.  The  city  is  built  on  a  number  of  hills,  and  is 
surrounded  by  a  circle  of  higher  hills,  clothed  with  the  ever- 
green cedar,  and  crowned  with  rugged  rocks.  The  Colorado 
River  winds  out  and  in  among  these  hills,  and  sweeps  around 
the  southern  part  of  the  city. 

Austin  claims  a  population  of  ten  to  twelve  thousand.  The 
stores  and  public  buildings  are  almost  all  of  limestone.  Con- 
gress Avenue,  the  principal  street  of  the  city,  runs  from  the 
river  to  the  Capitol,  and  is  very  broad  and  level.  To  a  man 
who  has  lived  in  San  Antonio,  Congress  Avenue  looks  like  a 
prairie. 

A  San-Antonian,  who  had  for  years  climbed  the  precipitous 
pavements  of  the  Alamo  City,  once  visited  Austin,  and  was 
very  much  disgusted  with  the  ridiculously  smooth,  broad  side- 


THE    CAPITAL    OF  THE  STATE    OF  TEXAS.     641 


walks.     Unexpectedly,  however,  he  came  to  a  place  where  a 

rock  house  was  in  process  of  construction.     Irregularly-shaped 

pieces  of  rock  were  lying  about  (just  as  I  am  lying  about  it), 

from  the  size  of  a  wardrobe  down  to  that  of  a  small  pocket- 

edition  of  the  New  Testament.      The  San-Antonian  was  de- 

lighted, and  kept  stumbling 

about,  sitting  down  when  he 

didn't  expect  to,  and  enjoy- 

ing himself  for  half  an  hour. 

As  he  finally  limped  off,  with 

a  sprained  ankle,  in  the  di- 

rection of   a  drug-store,   he 

exclamed,  "  This  is  glorious  ! 

Now  I  feel  as  if  I  was   at 

home,  —  as    if    I   had   been 

promenading  on  Commerce 

Street  in  San  Antonio." 

The  view  from  the  Capitol 
Hill  is  beautiful,  unless  you 
allow  your  gaze  to  rest  on 
the  Capitol  itself,1  —  a  mira- 
cle of  architectural  absurdity, 
that,  at  a  distance,  looks  like 
a  corn-crib  with  the  half  of  a 
large  watermelon  on  top  of 
it.  When  you  come  nearer, 
after  making  this  compari- 
son, you  feel  like  apologizing 
to  the  corn-crib. 

Standing  at  the  entrance 
of  the  State  House  is  a  mon- 

ument to  the  heroes  of  the  Alamo.  Its  base  is  constructed 
of  stones  taken  from  the  Alamo  building,  the  upper  part  is 
made  of  plaster  of  Paris,  and  the  whole  structure  is  only  about 
ten  feet  high.  The  monument  bears  the  following  inscrip- 
tions :  — 


THE   ALAMO    MONUMENT. 


1  When  we  visited  Austin,  and  when  this  chapter  was  written,  the  old  Capitol  was  still 
standing.    It  was  shortly  afterwards  destroyed  by  fire. 


642 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


TO   THE   GOD   OF    THE   FEARLESS   AND    FREE 

IS  DEDICATED  THIS  ALTAR, 

MADE  FROM  THE  RUINS  OF  THE  ALAMO, 

MARCH,  A.D.  1836. 


BLOOD  OF  HEROES  HATH  STAINED  ME: 

LET  THE  STONES  OF  THE  ALAMO  SPEAK,  THAT  THEIR 

IMMOLATION  BE  NOT  FORGOTTEN. 


BE  THEY  ENROLLED  WITH  LEONIDAS  IN  THE  HOST 
OF  THE  MIGHTY  DEAD. 


THERMOPYUE  HAD  HER  MESSENGER  OF  DEFEAT: 
THE  ALAMO  HAD  NONE. 


CROCKETT.       BONHAM.       TRAVIS.       BOWIE. 


Texas  should  be  as  much  ashamed  of  this  petty  monument 
as  of  the  fact  that  the  Alamo  itself  is  rented  to  a  merchant  who 
stores  miscellaneous  groceries  in  it. 

The  interior  of  the  Texas  Capitol  is  in  a  very  dilapidated  condi- 
tion, —  the  floors 
are  damp;  the 
walls  are  cracked ; 
the  plaster  has 
fallen  off  in  many 
places ;  and  hun- 
dreds of  bats  in- 
habit the  legisla- 
tive halls,  and  fly 
above  the  heads 
of  the  Texas 
statesmen. 

Three     million 
acres  of  land  in 

OLD    STATE    HOUSE,   AUSTIN,    TEX.  _  ,  , 

Texas  have  been 

appropriated  to  be  used  in  building  a  new  State  House.  It  is 
to  be  an  immense  building,  with  a  frontage  of  five  hundred 
and  sixty-six  feet,  and  a  height  of  three  hundred  and  eleven 


SAM  HOUSTON.  643 

feet  from  foundation  to  top  of  dome.  It  may  therefore  be 
reasonably  expected,  that,  at  no  distant  day,  Texas  will  have 
the  finest  State  Capitol  in  the  United  States. 

There  are  half  a  dozen  oil  paintings  in  the  Capitol.  On  the 
wall  in  the  House,  to  the  right  of  the  Speaker's  chair,  is  a  large 
picture  of  Gen.  Sam  Houston.  He  is  sitting  down,  with  his 
hat  and  cane  in  his  hands,  enveloped  in  the  ample  folds  of  a 
large  cloak.  The  likeness  is  said  to  be  excellent.  It  agrees 
exactly  with  the  kind  of  a  man  Houston  was.  You  see  a  face 
full  of  intense  energy,  amounting  almost  to  savagery ;  a  bold, 
fearless  glance ;  and,  above  all,  you  perceive  in  the  lines  of  the 
lips  the  evidences  of  determination  and  a  strong  will.  There 
can  be  no  hesitation  in  pronouncing  the  verdict,  —  here  is  a 
natural-born  ruler  of  men. 

In  the  Senate,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  President's  chair, 
is  a  large  oil  painting  of  Washington.  It  is  the  stereotyped 
picture  you  have  seen  all  your  life,  —  one  hand  holding  a 
sheathed  sword,  while,  with  the  other,  he  makes  a  motion  which 
may  either  refer  to  his  refusal  to  act  on  a  petition  to  commute, 
that  lies  on  the  table ;  or  may  be  intended  to  scare  off  the 
impetuous  bootblacks  with  which  Austin  is  infested  ;  or  may 
mean,  "  No,  gentlemen,  I  make  it  a  point  never  to  enter  a 
saloon  by  daylight."  Everybody  may  suit  himself  as  to  what 
the  gesture  means.  The  face  of  the  father  of  his  country  has 
evidently  been  taken  from  a  three-cent  postage-stamp. 

There  is  also  a  picture  of  Gen.  Tom  Green,  —  a  fine,  manly 
face,  in  which  frankness  and  tenderness  are  touchingly  blended. 
From  the  Senate  I  went  over  to  the  House.  Imagine  my  con- 
sternation at  seeing  Washington,  whom  a  moment  before  I  had 
left  in  the  Senate  gesticulating  at  the  bootblacks,  standing  on 
guard,  in  identically  the  same  position,  to  the  left  of  the  speaker 
of  the  House.  There  could  be  no  mistake  about  it.  There  was 
the  tall,  commanding  figure,  the  same  postage-stamp  cast  of 
features,  the  same  defiant  refusal  to  commute,  or  whatever  the 
gesture  might  mean,  only  he  had  changed  some  of  his  clothes. 

"How  many  George  Washingtons  do  you  keep  on  the 
premises  at  one  time  ?  "  I  asked  of  a  legislator,  pointing  to  the 
picture. 


644  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

"That's  not  Washington:  that's  Sam  Houston,"  he  replied. 

So  it  was ;  but  the  father  of  Texas  in  this  picture  was  cer- 
tainly dressed  to  imitate  the  father  of  the  United  States. 

There  is  also  a  life-size  painting  representing  David  Crock- 
ett dressed  in  buckskin,  and  accompanied  by  a  rifle  and  two 
dogs.  The  dogs  look  natural  enough,  and  there  is  a  great  deal 
of  fidelity  to  life  in  the  rifle ;  but,  when  it  comes  to  David  him- 
self, there  is  something  wrong.  Here,  in  the  full  blaze  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  are  we  to  suppose  that  David  Crockett,  for 
whom  even  hungry  "  bars "  had  an  intuitive  awe,  actually 
parted  his  hair  in  the  middle,  like  the  effeminate  youth  of  the 
present  day  who  sucks  the  end  of  a  cane?  What  a  vast  amount 
of  trouble  in  hunting  enough  remains  together  to  hold  an 
inquest  on,  the  coroner  would  have,  if  the  original  David 
Crockett  were  to  appear  in  the  flesh,  and  meet  by  chance  the 
imaginative  artist  who  painted  his  picture !  The  mouth  is  so 
large  that  it  looks  as  if  it  might  have  been  partial  to  water- 
melons. 

The  most  prominent  figure  in  the  Texas  revolution,  on  the 
side  of  the  Texans,  was  Gen.  Sam  Houston.  A  history  of 
Texas  without  Sam  Houston  would  be  as  the  Book  of  Exodus 
without  Moses.  If  the  life  of  Houston  were  written  as  it 
should  be  written,  it  would  excel  in  interest  the  most  thrilling 
romance  that  was  ever  penned.  The  following  is  a  bare 
outline :  — 

Sam  Houston  was  born  in  Rockbridge  County,  Va.,  March  2, 
1793.  His  ancestors,  both  on  his  father's  and  mother's  side, 
were  Scotch-Irish.  They  emigrated  from  the  north  of  Ireland 
to  Pennsylvania  about  the  year  1688.  Sam  inherited  the  fine 
physique,  the  courage,  the  enterprise,  and  the  firmness,  —  some 
called  it  obstinacy,  —  that  are  some  of  the  physical,  moral,  and 
intellectual  qualities  that  the  race  he  came  from  are  generally 
credited  with  possessing.  Houston's  father  fought  in  the  war 
of  1776.  He  was  a  man  of  but  moderate  means;  and  young 
Sam  was  kept  at  work  on  the  farm  until  he  was  thirteen  years 
of  age,  without  any  educational  privileges,  except  so  much  as 
he  could  take  advantage  of  at  the  little  country  school  during 
the  winter  season. 


SAM  HOUSTON.  645 

He  preferred  tracking  rabbits  to  tracing  geometrical  lines, 
searching  for  signs  of  deer  in  the  forest  to  searching  for  Latin 
roots  in  the  school-books,  and  he  liked  better  the  study  of 
natural  history  in  the  woods  than  the  study  of  the  rules  of 
grammar  in  the  school.  Probably  twelve  months  in  all  would 
be  an  excessive  estimate  of  the  time  Houston  attended  school. 
When  he  was  thirteen  years  of  age  his  father  died ;  and  shortly 
afterwards  his  mother,  with  a  family  of  nine  children,  emi- 
grated to  Tennessee,  then  a  frontier  country.  The  Houston 
family  located  near  the  boundary-line  between  the  white  set- 
tlers and  the  Cherokee  Indians.  Sam  worked  on  his  motfter's 
farm,  and  went  to  school  at  intervals.  During  this  time  he 
found  a  stray  copy  of  Pope's  translation  of  the  Iliad,  and 
became  so  enamoured  of  its  heroic  recitals,  that  he  asked  to  be 
allowed  to  learn  the  language  in  which  the  Iliad  was  originally 
written.  His  mother,  having  probably  little  faith  in  the  utility 
of  such  learning,  refused  her  consent ;  whereupon  the  future 
soldier  and  statesman  swore  he  would  never,  while  he  lived, 
recite  another  lesson.  On  his  refusal  to  return  to  school,  his 
brother  compelled  him  to  serve  in  a  store.  The  confinement 
incident  to  the  life  of  a  clerk  in  a  county  store  did  not  suit 
him  ;  and  the  result  was,  that  he  suddenly  disappeared,  and, 
when  next  heard  of,  was  living  with  the  Cherokee  Indians. 
He  lived  some  three  or  four  years  with  the  Indians,  conforming 
to  all  their  customs  and  habits,  and  being  acknowledged  by  the 
chief  of  the  tribe  as  an  adopted  son. 

He  continued  to  live  with  the  Indians  until  he  was  eighteen 
years  of  age,  once  or  twice  a  year  visiting  the  white  settlements 
to  make  purchases  of  clothes,  ammunition,  etc.  During  these 
visits  he  incurred  a  debt  which  he  was  anxious  to  pay.  That 
he  might  obtain  the  means  to  pay  his  indebtedness,  he  deter- 
mined to  go  back  to  the  settlements,  and  teach  school.  For  a 
boy  of  the  scant  scholastic  training  that  Houston  had,  to  pro- 
pose to  teach  others,  seems  an  absurdity.  To  some,  education 
is  not  a  matter  of  rod  and  book ;  and  great  things  can  be  done, 
and  seemingly  insurmountable  obstacles  overcome,  by  one  who 
has  self-confidence  and  determination  :  therefore,  when  Hous- 
ton's character  is  taken  into  account,  and  his  determination  to 


646 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


do  the  thing  he  attempted  to  do  is  considered,  it  will  not  seem 
such  an  extraordinary  matter  that  he  succeeded,  and  that  he 
soon  had  more  pupils  in  his  school  than  he  could  give  attention 
to.  His  pupils  paid  him  eight  dollars  a  year,  payable,  one-third 
in  corn,  one-third  in  calico,  and  one-third  in  cash.  He  closed  his 
school  as  soon  as  he  had  earned  a  sufficient  amount  wherewith 

to  pay  his  debts. 

In  i8i3Hous- 
ton  enlisted  in 
the  United- 
States  army  as 
a  private.  He 
was  soon  pro- 
moted to  be 
drill-sergeant. 
He  d  i  s  t  i  n  - 
guished  himself 


in  the  war 
again  s t  the 
Creeks,  and  was 
commissioned 
as  an  ensign.  At 
the  battle  of 
Horse  Shoe 
Houston  was 
the  second  to 
scale  the  breast- 
works, behind 
which  were  in- 
trenched a  thousand  Indians.  He  was  shot  through  the  leg 
with  a  barbed  arrow.  The  arrow  was  pulled  out  with  difficulty, 
and  left  a  wound  that  did  not  heal  for  years.  When  Gen.  Jack- 
son learned  that  Houston  was  wounded,  he  ordered  him  to  the 
rear;  but  Houston  refused  to  remain  inactive,  and  again  re- 
turned to  the  front  in  time  to  take  part  in  another  charge,  in 
which  he  fought  until  he  was  shot  twice  in  the  shoulder. 

He  remained  in  the  army  until  1817,  when  he  was  appointed 
Indian  agent  to  the  Cherokees,  but  shortly  afterwards  resigned 


SAM  HOUSTON.  647 

this  office,  owing  to  some  misunderstanding  with  the  govern- 
ment. He  began  the  practice  of  law  in  Lebanon,  Tenn.,  when 
he  was  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  in  a  few  months  after- 
wards was  elected  district-attorney.  In  1823  he  was  elected  to 
Congress  without  opposition,  and  re-elected  in  1825.  In  1827 
he  was  elected  governor  of  Tennessee  by  over  twelve  thousand 
majority.  During  his  term  of  office  as  governor,  he  married 
Miss  Allen,  a  lady  of  good  family  and  estimable  character.  A 
few  months  after  his  marriage  he  sent  his  resignation  to  the 
secretary  of  state,  left  his  wife,  and  went  back  to  his  wild  life 
among  the  Cherokees.  He  remained  with  the  Indians  some 
three  years.  In  1832-33  he  arrived  in  Texas,  and  began  the 
practice  of  law  at  San  Augustine. 

When  the  war  between  the  Texans  and  Mexicans  broke  -out, 
Houston  was  elected  commander-in-chief  of  the  army. 

He  led  the  army  in  person  at  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto, 
where  he  captured  Santa  Anna,  president  of  Mexico. 

Houston  was  then  elected  president  of  the  Republic.  After 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  he  represented  Texas  in  the  United- 
States  Senate.  He  was  subsequently  elected  governor  of 
Texas,  and  died  at  Huntsville,  Tex.,  in  August,  1863. 


648 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    XLVI. 


LATE  years  it  has  come  to  be 
acknowledged  that  Texas  is 
the  broadest,  widest,  deepest, 
and  most  intensely  gorgeous 
State  in  the  Union.  Her  cat- 
tle are  upon  a  thousand  hills, 
and  there  are  more  than  ten 
thousand  cattle  to  a  hill ;  her 
historic  battle-fields  are  more  numerous,  and  every  field  more 
gory,  than  those  of  other  lands ;  her  rattlesnakes  have  more 
rattles,  and  the  rattles  are  bigger,  than  those  of  the  snakes  of 
other  climes ;  her  bayous  and  swamps  produce  more  ague  than 
those  of  other  countries,  and  there  are  ten  per  cent  more  shakes 
to  the  ague ;  her  sons  can  swear  deeper  and  yell  louder  than 
the  army  in  Flanders  ;  and  her  daughters,  in  equestrian  exer- 
cises, a  la  clothespin,  are  said  to  equal  the  Amazons  of  old : 
but  it  is  not  on  these  things  that  Texas  rests  her  claim  to  be 
the  top  rail  of  the  fence  in  Jhe  federation  of  States. 

Latent  poetic  genius,  that  has  been  slumbering  in  the  breast 
of  one  of  her  daughters,  has  been  discovered,  and,  with  some 
little  encouragement,  has  burst  into  an  incandescent  flame  of 
poetic  fire,  culminating  in  "The  Spinning  Song,  and  Other 
Pieces,"  by  Mrs.  P.  C.  Allison,  Austin  (Texas  Capital,  Pub.),  — 
a  book  that  I  picked  up  while  at  Austin. 

England  boasts  her  Shakspeare  ;  Germany,  Goethe  ;  Ireland, 
Moore ;  Michigan,  the  "  Sweet  Singer ; "  and  in  the  days  that 
are  to  come,  Texas,  with  her  fifty  million  inhabitants,  will  boast 
of  her  Allison  ;  and  once  a  year  her  citizens  will  celebrate  the 
natal  day  of  a  poetess,  who,  to  use  her  own  language,  "  knocked 
'em  all." 


A   SWEET  SINGER.  649 

This  poetess  —  whose  gems  of  inspiration,  clothed  in  the  exu- 
berant fancy  and  language  of  the  gods,  are  destined  to  scintil- 
late through  the  realms  of  thought,  and  grow  brighter  and 
brighter  as  future  ages  learn  to  appreciate  their  worth,  —  this 
female  genius  —  first  saw  the  light  in  Travis  County,  Tex.,  in 
1 8 — .  Her  early  life  is  shrouded  in  mystery.  Enough,  how- 
ever, is  known,  to  indicate  that  she  exhibited  signs  of  budding 
genius  at  any  early  age ;  but  it  was  not  until  mellow  middle 
age  that  she  "dropped  into  poetry."  A  happy  inspiration 
turned  her  thoughts  to  the  muse.  That  she  took  the  step 
believing  she  was  fulfilling  her  mission,  is  evident.  Hear  her 
defence  of  the  poets  :  — 

"  There's  nothing  wrong  in  making  a  song: 
It  don't  take  long,  if  wit  and  learning's  strong. 
If  you've  wit  and  education,  though  poor  your  situation, 
There's  nothing  in  creation  will  give  you  a  better  recommendation. 
A  good  grammar  scholar  is  a  head  out  of  hollow, 
If  they  don't  own  a  dollar,  but  half  enough  to  swallow." 

Here  she  affirms  at  the  outset  that  the  maker  of  a  song  is 
not  necessarily  guilty  of  any  transgression.  "It  don't  take 
long."  See  the  superiority  of  the  genius  of  our  poetess  !  We 
have  been  taught  to  believe  that  all  the  great  poets  labored 
hard,  and  burned  the  midnight  oil,  as  they  laboriously  measured 
their  verses  off  by  the  feet ;  but  our  poetess  scorns  this  tradi- 
tional snail's  pace,  and  possesses  so  much  of  the  divine  afflatus 
that  she  just  runs  poetry  off  by  the  yard  as  it  were,  and  can 
afford  to  throw  in  (as  she  does)  a  few  extra  feet  in  some  lines 
for  good  measure. 

In  this  age  of  slipshod  English,  it  is  gratifying  to  find  a 
great  mind  presenting  so  forcibly  the  advantages  of  a  gram- 
matical education.  How  could  the  grand  truth  be  more 
strongly  presented  than  in  the  touching  stanza  just  quoted  ? 
And  how  comforting  the  lesson  of  the  world-without-end,  ever- 
lasting justice  and  equilibrium  of  circumstances  taught  in  the 
assertion,  that,  even  if  the  proficient  grammarian  is  lacking  in 
pecuniary  resources,  yet  still  he  has  the  satisfaction  of  feeling 
that  he  "  is  a  head  out  of  hollow  "  ! 

In  keeping  with  the  foregoing  is  the  sentiment  in  the  follow- 


650  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

ing,  which  we  quote  from  one  of  the  song-gems  contained  in 
the  volume  :  — 

"  If  we  are  asked  to  another,  we  must  go  if  its  further, 
Assist  a  brother,  or  a  neighbor,  or  a  mother. 
If  we  show  we  are  tight,  they'll  treat  us  right ; 
They'll  quit  us  quite,  feel  inclined  to  slight." 

Worthy  of  our  admiration  is  the  childlike  confidence  in  her 
fellows,  shown  by  the  great  and  trusting  heart  of  this  woman. 
"If,"  she  says,  "we  show  we  are  tight,  they  will  treat  us  right." 
Even  in  the  powerless  condition  of  inebriation  she  will  trust 
herself  in  their  hands,  feeling  confident  that  they  will  conduct 
themselves  toward  her  with  rectitude,  as  it  were. 

In  the  ballad  of  the  "  Conscript  "  we  find  this  pearl :  — 

"  We  are  like  a  swarm  of  bees  that  has  lost  their  king, 
Though  we  will  humble  to  our  knees ;  and  to  God  let  us  sing. 
And  I  claim  that  home  for  mine.     [The  chorus.] 
Like  wine  in  a  bowl  that's  set  and  lost  it  sever, 
If  God  will  take  my  soul,  welcome,  Yankees,  to  my  liver." 

See  the  strong  vein  of  piety  that  runs  through  these  lines. 
The  martyrs  of  old,  at  the  stake,  were  oblivious  of  their  sur- 
roundings, and  cared  not  for  the  future  disposition  of  their 
anatomy,  when  the  fire  was  kindled,  and  their  last  chance  to 
bribe  the  sheriff  or  break  jail  was  gone.  With  some  such  feel- 
ing, with  her  heart  full  of  forgiveness  to  her  enemies,  and  with 
unheard-of  generosity,  does  our  poetess  close  the  pious  chorus, 
with  a  free  offer  of  her  liver  to  the  foe.  Instead  of  the  morbid 
melancholy  that  characterizes  most  of  the  world's  great,  poems, 
we  find  a  cheerful  spirit  predominant  in  all  the  works  of  this 
wonderful  woman.  Witness  the  following  :  — 

"  I  am  resolved  to  end  my  life  in  quietness  and  peace ; 
So,  when  I'm  called  to  leave,  no  strife,  but  cheerfully  decease." 

Even  the  grim  tyrant  cannot  rob  her  of  her  peace  and  equa- 
nimity. She  is  resolved  to  face  the  old  scythe-man  himself, 
and  "decease"  in  a  manner  characteristic  of  the  cheerfulness 
of  her  life  and  writings.  With  that  delightful  air  of  uncon- 
ventionality  and  frankness  to  be  found  only  in  the  land  of  the 


GEMS   OF  FANCY.  651 

setting  sun,  she  speaks  of  her  enemies,  disdaining  to  conciliate 
the  foe  :  — 

"  If  I'm  killed  by  a  Yankee,  I'm  killed  by  a  foe  ; 
Would  God  give  thanky  to  them  that  do  so  ? 
If  I  lose  a  few  days  here,  I'll  gain  them  there; 
I'll  live  in  safer  care,  have  better  fare." 

The  air  of  resignation  and  the  spirit  of  faith  that  are  ex- 
pressed here  in  terms  of  lyric  fervor  is  something  worthy  of 
commendation.  By  the  act  of  the  enemy  she  may  lose  a  few 
days  here ;  but  she  is  content  to  do  so,  for  will  she  not  gain 
them  there,  where,  as  she  claims,  the  fare  is  of  a  superior 
quality  ? 

Among  the  meteors  of  fancy  that  flash  through  the  pages  of 
the  volume,  we  find  a  graphic  description  of  the  death  of  an 
officer  on  duty.  I  quote  a  few  lines  :  — 

"  A  noble  officer  of  Lockhart  town,  that  never  bled  a  heart 
(He  now  is  sleeping  under  ground,  from  many  friends  did  part), 
On  July  7  some  distance  went,  his  duty  to  fulfil. 
A  dreadful  ball,  with  vengeance  sent,  the  noble  man  did  kill. 
He'd  captured  the  object  of  pursuit,  his  visible  arms  laid  down ; 
But  one  was  hidden  in  his  boot  —  unfortunately,  never  found. 
Preparing  for  to  make  him  fast,  he  asked  to  take  a  chew ; 
Quick  his  hand  his  pocket  past,  the  deathly  weapon  drew, 
Murdered  him  quick  as  thought :  in  death  the  victim  fell ; 
No  sight  of  wife  or  mother  caught,  as  he  sighed  to  the  world  farewell." 

See  the  minuteness  of  detail  in  this  hair-curdling  description 
of  a  desperate  deed.  Who  but  a  master-mind  would  have 
thought  of  mentioning  that  ordinary  but  significant  incident  on 
which,  probably,  the  after-fate  of  the  murderer  hung,  —  "  he 
asked  —  he  asked  to  take  a  chew  "  ? 

It  is  evident  that  the  writer  had  but  two  objects  in  view  when 
she  published  this  little  volume.  First,  she  saw  that  there  was 
an  aching  void  in  literature  that  wanted  filling,  and  she  deter- 
mined to  fill  it  with  useful  truths  and  moral  facts ;  for  morality 
is  the  strong  point  —  the  head  and  front,  as  it  were  —  of  these 
poems.  Again,  she  desired  to  add  to  her  depleted  exchequer 
so  much  of  this  world's  dross  as  might  accrue  from  the  sale  of 


652  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

her  poems  ;  for,  though  a  good  grammar  scholar,  and,  as  a  con- 
sequence, satisfied  even  if  she  "don't  own  a  dollar,"  yet  she 
had  learned  from  experience  that  a  little  money  lubricates  the 
cares  of  life. 

The  cheerful,  not  to  say  hilarious,  poetry  of  Mrs.  Allison  is 
in  marked  contrast  with  the  dolorous  literature  that  passes 
current  for  poetry  in  this  age. 

Most  of  the  poetry  manufactured  in  the  present  day  is  written 
by  women.  A  marked  feature  of  almost  all  of  it  is  gloom  and 
low-spirited  woe.  There  is  nothing  cheerful  about  it.  Women 
never  pen  a  joyous  carol  or  a  merry  lay.  They  confine  them- 
selves to  raking  up  the  cold  ashes  of  a  dismal  past,  and  harrow- 
ing our  feelings  with  dolorous  prophecies  regarding  a  joyless 
and  insolvent  future.  This  would  lead  one  to  believe  that  the 
average  poetess  is  bilious  ;  but  such  is  not  the  case.  I  have 
known  some  women  who  were  the  light  of  their  respective 
households,  the  life  of  the  social  circle,  — women  who  would  darn 
socks  with  hilarity,  and  construct  a  rag-carpet  with  exultant 
glee, — women  whose  buoyant  spirits  were  as  sunshine  in  their 
homes ;  and  yet  these  same  women,  when  they  sat  down  with 
pen  in  hand,  and  when  the  poetry  began  to  boil  up  inside  them, 
would  become  unhappy,  and  be  filled  with  gnawing  sorrow, 
bitter  grief,  and  a  brand  of  misery  that  would  register  away  up 
above  proof. 

The  first  thing  a  poetess  who  thinks  she  understands  her 
business  does,  is  to  go  back  into  the  storeroom  of  her  memory, 
and  resurrect  some  corroding  care  or  effete  heartache  that 
should  have  been  thrown  out  into  the  alley  long  ago.  She 
ponders  over  this  until  a  gloomy  anguish  takes  possession  of 
her,  her  heart  begins  to  bleed,  and  severe  pangs  of  unhappiness 
course  through  her  veins.  Her  whole  being  becomes  permeated 
with  a  mournful  sadness,  and  an  army-sized  wail  begins  strug- 
gling to  get  out  of  her.  Then  she  is  ready  for  business ;  and 
the  poetry  begins  to  flow  in  short-metre  lamentations  about 
how  cold  and  drear  every  thing  is,  and  how  much  she  pines  for 
solitude  and  death ;  and,  as  she  warms  to  her  work,  she  will 
probably  have  something  to  say  about  "faded  flowers,"  "leaf- 
less boughs,"  "blasted  hopes,"  and  "a  hollow  world." 


A  MISPLACED  POLICE-STATION.  653 

There  is  too  much  of  this  unshed-tear  style  of  poetry  going 
around.  We  know  that  the  world  is  hollow,  and  that  it  is  a 
fleeting  show,  and  that  women  are  fickle,  and  that  all  men  are 
liars,  and  that  life  is  but  a  weary  interlude,  and  that  death  will 
be  a  relief  (especially  from  this  class  of  poetry) ;  but  Job  and 
David  and  Solomon  told  us  all  that  long  ago,  and  I  protest 
against  these  time-worn  and  dismal  truisms  being  repeated 
every  hour,  and  thrust  on  me  with  all  their  defective  rhyme, 
halting  rhythm,  and  no  reason  at  all. 

Let  there  be  a  revolution  in  this  matter,  and  the  world  will 
be  all  the  better  for  it.  Let  us  have  something  cheerful, — 
some  poetry  with  hope  and  joy  and  gladness  in  it.  Although 
the  rose  has  thorns,  don't  grieve  over  that,  but  rather  remember 
that  it  has  beauty  and  a  sweet  odor.  Banish  the  clouds,  sweep 
out  the  dead  autumn  leaves,  and  give  us  sunshine  and  budding 
flowers. 

I  noticed  one  very  peculiar  feature  about  Austin.  The 
police-station  is  up  on  the  top  of  a  mountain,  while  the  saloons 
are  all  down  in  the  valleys.  I  seriously  contemplated  address- 
ing a  communication  to  the  mayor,  calling  his  attention  to  how 
much  better  it  would  be  to  have  the  saloons  on  the  top  of  the 
mountains,  and  the  lockup  down  in  the  valley.  Everybody  has 
seen  how  hard  it  is  sometimes  to  induce  an  intoxicated  reveller 
to  go  to  the  lockup,  even  when  it  is  quite  handy  to  the  saloon, 
and  on  the  same  level :  therefore,  what  a  wear  and  tear  it  must 
be,  on  the  police  and  their  clothes,  to  persuade  an  intoxicated 
man  to  climb  up  a  mountain  at  an  angle  of  worse  than  forty-five 
degrees  !  In  fact,  it  would  seem  impossible,  unless  the  saloon 
below  was  connected  with  the  lockup  with  a  pulley  and  a  long 
rope ;  and  then  there  would  be  no  fun  in  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  the  saloons  were  upon  the  dizzy  mountain-heights,  and  the 
lockup  down  below,  all  the  police  would  have  to  do  would  be  to 
take  the  reveller,  and  drop  him  down  into  the  jail-yard.  The 
distance,  as  the  crow  flies,  is  only  a  few  hundred  feet :  so,  with  a 
little  practice,  a  policeman  could  hit  the  jail  with  an  inebriate 
nine  times  out  of  ten.  And  yet  here  these  simple  people  have 
been  bringing  men  to  the  lockup  with  a  derrick  for  the  last 
forty  years.  On  reflection,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 


654 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


saloons  are  low  places,  anyhow.  Still,  I  am  not  dictating  to 
the  Austin  city  council.  They  may  have  their  reasons  for 
keeping  the  saloons  where  they  are. 

I  believe  I  stated  that  Austin  is  a  city  of  ups  and  downs,  and 
this  is  the  case  in  more  respects  than  one.  I  will  try  and  ex- 
plain. I  was  driving  out  with  a  gentleman  who  lived  in  Austin. 

I  noticed  that 
the  houses 
were  very 
neat,  and  I 
called  his  at- 
tention to  one 
very  pretty 
little  cottage. 
"Yes,"  re- 
sponded my 
companion. 
"Poor  fellow! 
he  could  not 
build  much  of 
a  house :  he 
paid  fifty 
cents  when 
he  failed. 
Just  wait  un- 
til I  show  you 
the  mansion 
of  a  fellow 
who  failed  on 
fifteen  cents 
on  the  dollar." 
Pretty  soon 

I  saw  a  fine-looking  house  with  spacious  grounds,  and  I  was 
told  that  the  owner  paid  thirty  cents  on  the  dollar.  At  last  we 
came  to  a  palatial  residence.  The  house  was  of  cut  stone  ;  the 
windows  were  of  plate-glass.  There  were  fountains  and  flowers 
and  shrubbery.  In  short,  the  property  was  worth  probably  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  The  owner,  as  soon  as  he  had  it  built  and 


SCENERY  ON  THE  COLORADO,  NEAR  AUSTIN. 


VICTORIA   R.  655 

furnished,  failed,  paying  ten  cents  on  the  dollar.  As  I  said, 
Austin  is  full  of  ups  and  downs. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  things  I  saw  while  at  Austin 
was  the  treaty  between  England  and  the  Republic  of  Texas. 
It  is  not  a  very  voluminous  document,  but  it  is  gotten  up  in 
gorgeous  style.  It  is  in  a  box  by  itself,  has  blue  and  red 
ribbons,  and  the  signature  of  Queen  Victoria  attached  to  it. 
The  treaty  was  signed  by  Victoria  on  the  25th  of  May,  1842, 
just  about  the  time  Wales  was  busy  getting  his  teeth  at  Buck- 
ingham Palace.  The  handwriting  is  rather  large  for  a  lady. 
Queen  Victoria  signs  herself  familiarly  "Victoria  R.,"  the  "R" 
being  provided  with  a  downward  flourish,  as  much  as  to  say, 
"  Thank  goodness,  that's  done."  The  letters,  being  more  regu- 
lar than  round,  look  as  if  written  by  a  German.  I  think  I 
know  how  that  occurred.  It  was  just  after  breakfast  in  Buck- 
ingham Palace,  when  a  knock  was  heard  at  the  door.  Victoria, 
thinking  it  was  a  sewing-machine  agent,  peeped  through  the 
shutters,  and  perceived  Lord  Palmerston  with  the  treaty  in  his 
hand.  She  instantly  rushed  to  the  back  door,  and  called  out, 
"  You,  Albert !  oh,  you,  Albert  von  Coburg  Gotha  Sigamarin 
von  Kuhschwappel  Moltenburg,  come  here  this  minit ! "  And 
upon  his  coming  up  she  told  him,  "Here's  Palmerston,  and 
that  treaty  with  the  savages  in  Texas,  and  I  hain't  got  the 
breakfast-dishes  washed,  nor  my  hair  done  up,  and  Wales  is 
howling  for  his  —  for  his  nourishment.  Do,  Albert  von  Gotha, 
take  Palmerston  into  the  parlor,  and  sign  that  thing  for  me : 
that's  a  good  feller."  And  it  was  his  duty,  and  he  did  it. 
That  accounts  for  the  peculiarities  in  the  signature.  In  the 
treaty  the  word  "republic"  is  spelled  "republick." 

But  the  seal  was  what  surprised  me.  It  was  staked  out  to 
the  treaty  with  two  ribbons,  and  was  in  a  round  tin  box  as  big 
as  a  dinner-bucket.  You  took  off  the  cover,  and  there  was 
the  seal  in  yellow  wax :  but,  owing  to  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather,  the  wax  had  run ;  and  that  imposing  female,  Britannia, 
armed  with  a  pitchfork,  was  mixed  up  so  with  the  lion  and  the 
unicorn,  that  you  couldn't  tell  them  apart.  I  didn't  try. 

I  was  also  shown  the  treaty  with  France.  It,  too,  had  a  seal 
that  would  require  a  dray  to  move.  Louis  Philippe's  signature 


656 


ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


is  gorgeous.     It  looks  as  if  he  had  given  the  whole  of  his  mind 
to  it. 

The  king  of  the  Netherlands  signs  himself  simply  "Wil- 
liam," with  a  flourish  thaf  looks  like  a  window-shutter  struck 
by  lightning. 

The  treaty  of  annexation  is  there  too.  I  hope  Daniel  Web- 
ster can  prove  an  alibi ;  but  the  average  juryman  would  decide 
that  he  was  guilty  of  having  just  dined  before  he  signed  his 
name  to  it.  John  C.  Calhoun's  signature  is  a  very  modest  one. 

H  e  could 
write  a  book 
with  the  ink 
Louis  Phi- 
lippe used. 

I  went  to 
seethe  Legis- 
lature when 


in  session, 
and  obtained 
some  inter- 
esting statis- 
tics. 

There  were 
se vent  een 
members  in 
their  shirt- 
sleeves,  of 
whom  five 

had  their  vests  off.  There  were  two  who  had  their  boots  off, 
and  thirteen  were  smoking.  There  were  three  who  seemed  to 
be  asleep,  and  two  were  snoring  in  different  voices.  I  don't 
blame  them  much  for  that.  The  question  arises,  Why  should 
not  the  members  be  required  to  treat  the  Speaker  with  the 
same  courtesy  that  they  expect  of  him  ?  What  would  the 
members  think  if  the  Speaker  had  a  cigar  in  his  mouth,  and 
spent  half  the  time  holding  up  his  feet  for  them  to  inspect  the 
bottom  of  his  boots  ? 

After  you  have  conversed  with  legislators,  and  listened  to 


A    SPIRITED    DEBATE    IN    THE    TEXAS    LEGISLATURE. 


LEGISLATIVE  DIGNITY, 


657 


the  row  going  on  at  the  Capitol,  you  insensibly  absorb,  not  only 
a  great  deal  of  crude  wisdom,  but  a  wealth  of  parliamentary 
slang.  After  I  had  listened  to  a  spirited  debate  in  the  House, 
I  went  to  my  hotel,  or  rather  the  hotel  I  was  stopping  at,  for 
dinner.  I  ordered  some  soup ;  and  the  waiter,  owing  to  a 
pressure  of  business  I  suppose,  forgot  to  bring  it.  I  arose  tci 
a  point  of  order,  and  moved  the  previous  question.  He  under- 
stood what  I  meant,  for  he  moved  to  lay  it  on  the  table  at  once. 
A  man  who  was  easing  at  the  same  table  asked  me  to  pass  the 
butter ;  and,  without  thinking  what  I  was  saying,  I  told  him  he 
could  get 
nothing 
passed  unless 
there  was  a 
quorum  pres- 
ent. If  he  de- 
sired, I  would 
have  the  rolls 
(nice  "warm 
French 
rolls")  called. 
He  looked  at 
me  rather 
hard,  and 
moved  his 
seat  nearer  to 
the  door,  so 

that  he  could  get  out  quickly.  He  thought  I  was  crazy,  but  I 
wasn't.  I  had  only  been  listening  to  the  proceedings  in  the 
House. 

Another  fellow  wanted  some  bread ;  and  he,  too,  looked  as  if 
there  was  some  ambiguity  in  my  language,  when  I  told  him  he 
ought  to  apply  to  his  local  representative,  or  he  might  refer  the 
matter  to  the  gentleman  from  Africa,  who  had  the  floor,  and 
who  was  chairman  of  the  board  at  that  hotel. 

I  heard  him  afterwards  tell  the  hotel-clerk  that  it  was  a  shame 
that  my  relatives  allowed  me  to  wander  about,  making  a  fool  of 
myself;   but  he  supposed  there  was  no  room  in  the  lunatic- 
42 


THE    GENTLEMAN    FROM    AFRICA    HAD    THE    FLOOR. 


658  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

asylum.  A  man  who  was  eating  a  large  watermelon  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  table  asked  me  what  I  thought  of  the 
Legislature ;  and  he  seemed  somewhat  surprised  when  I  replied 
mechanically,  "  I  think  it  might  pass,  if  every  thing  after  the 
enacting  clause  were  stricken  out." 

After  I  got  through  with  dinner,  and  sauntered  out  into  the 
hall,  I  was  waited  on  by  a  delegation  of  newsboys,  each  one  of 
whom  presented  me  with  a  copy  of  the  local  paper ;  and,  when 
they  wanted  a  nickel,  I  thoughtlessly  told  trjem  that  there  was 
no  chance  of  their  bill  passing,  unless  it  was  tacked  on  to  the 
general  deficiency.  As  they  still  clamored  for  nickels,  I  in- 
formed them  that  the  appropriation  was  exhausted.  When  I 
was  presented  with  a  memorial  from  the  clerk  of  the  hotel  at 
which  I  was  boarding,  I  made  a  little  speech  to  the  effect  that 
the  bill  pass  to  its  second  reading,  or  that  we  could  go  into 
executive  session  and  debate  the  question.  The  hotel-clerk 
was  pretty  well  up  in  parliamentary  usage  ;  for  he  said  he  should 
consider  himself  a  committee  of  one,  with  authority  from  the 
governor  to  veto  my  baggage. 

Austin  is  most  emphatically  a  pretty  city,  perhaps  the 
prettiest  in  Texas.  In  some  respects  it  has  advantages  over 
San  Antonio.  There  is,  in  the  first  place,  the  beautiful  moun- 
tain scenery.  Then  the  location  of  the  city  on  a  number  of 
hills  is  calculated  to  please  the  eye,  particularly  as  these 
heights  are  crowned  with  family  residences,  the  architecture  of 
which  is  infinitely  superior  to  that  observable  in  the  Alamo 
City.  In  San  Antonio,  when  a  man  builds  a  fine  house,  he 
selects  a  piece  of  ground  to  fit  the  house  (that  is,  of  about  the 
same  size) ;  and  consequently  he  has  to  hang  the  family  clothes 
out  on  the  shrubbery  in  the  front  yard,  the  possible  object 
being  to  astonish  the  passer-by  with  the  amount  of  under- 
clothing the  proud  proprietor  can  boast  of.  In  Austin,  however, 
the  people  do  not  appear  to  be  so  ostentatious  (no  intentional 
perpetration  of  a  pun  is  designed) :  there  appears  an  unwilling- 
ness to  inform  the  public  as  to  the  extent  and  variety  of  their 
underwear.  Possibly  the  Austinites  do  not  wear  many  clothes 
in  summer ;  but,  at  any  rate,  they  build  their  houses  on  large 
lots,  and  have  ample  room  for  back-yards  and  clothes-lines. 


A   METEOROLOGICAL  FACT. 


659 


Like  San  Antonio,  Austin  is  provided  with  water-works,  ice- 
factories,  and  street-cars ;  also  with  gas,  which,  like  that  of  the 
former  city,  is  evidently  not  intended  for  illuminating-purposes. 

Austin  is  said  to  be  the  hottest  place  in  Texas  in  the  sum- 
mer, and  the  coldest  in  winter.  The  wind  does  not  blow  much, 
except  on  Capitol  Hill,  where  there  is  an  unlimited  supply  of 
the  article,  particularly  when  the  Legislature  is  in  session. 
This  is  a  meteorological  fact  of  great  significance.  It  has  been 
proposed  to  utilize  this  immense  natural  force  in  drawing  the 
street-cars  up  to  the  Capitol,  and  in  extracting  water  from  a 
fourteen-hundred-feet  artesian  well,  one  of  the  minor  bores 
that  are  to  be  found  in  that  neighborhood. 


\1 


660  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


CHAPTER    XLVII. 


\\J  AUSTIN  we  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Major  L.  B.  Johnson.  The  major  has 
a  dog  —  an  imported  dog.  It  came 
across  the  Atlantic,  accompanied  by  a 
document  which  shows  that  its  father 
was  a  Gordon  setter,  out  of  Hore- 
hound,  by  Peruvian  Bark,  dam  Borax, 
out  of  Bromide  of  Potassium,  winner  of  the  Astley  stakes,  and 
that  its  mother  was  a  female  dog  equally  rich  in  distinguished 
ancestors.  To  look  at  the  brute,  and  hear  its  owner  talk  about 
it,  I  could  not  help  getting  the  impression,  somehow,  that  it 
was  composed  of  about  one-third  restrained  appetite,  one-third 
dog,  and  the  balance  pedigree ;  but  I  anticipate.  The  major 
called  on  us,  and  invited  us  to  come  out  to  his  plantation  and 
spend  a  day  with  him.  Then  he  added,  as  a  glittering  induce- 
ment, that,  if  we  would  go,  he  would  take  his  new  and  imported 
dog  out  for  the  first  time,  and  show  us  what  intelligence  and 
blood  combined,  in  a  game-dog,  could  accomplish. 

"  Has  he  never  caught  a  rabbit  before,  major  ?  "  I  inquired. 
The  major  was  indignant. 

"  Of  course  not,  nor  behind,  either.  Why,  this  is  no  rabbit- 
dog.  He  is  not  a  greyhound.  Haven't  I  told  you  that  he  is  a 
pure  Gordon  setter  ?  In  fact,  he  is  more  Gordon  than  setter,  if 
that  is  possible.  Catch  a  rabbit  ?  Faugh  !  Why,  my  dog  is  a 
game-dog :  an  imported  dog  sets  game,  you  know.  If  you  were 
to  sic  him  at  a  rabbit,  or  turn  him  loose  on  a  cat,  he  wouldn't 
move  a  muscle  of  his  eye  or  a  wink  of  his  tail ;  but,  when  it 
comes  to  partridges  and  prairie-chickens,  he  is  right  there,  and 
business  all  over.  A  Gordon  setter,  gentlemen,  will  set  a  par- 


THE  IMPORTED  DOG. 


66 1 


tridge  the  first  time  it  ever  sees  a  green  field,  or  smells  a  feather. 
Instinct  teaches  them.     It  is  hereditary  intelligence,  that  comes 
to  them  from  a  long  line  of  trained  ancestors.     Just  as  a  re- 
triever    takes     to 
water,  or  a  sheep- 
dog  to   sheep,   so 
a   setter   takes   to 
setting  game-birds. 
They   don't   make 
mistakes.     You 
come  out,  and  I'll 
show  you." 

We  agreed  to  go, 
for  we  were  anxious 
to  hunt  for  quail ; 
not,  however,  be- 
cause we  had  lost  any  quail,  or  because  there  was  a  reward 
offered  for  any  quail  that  had  strayed  off  and  got  lost. 

We  arrived  at  Onion  Creek  at  eight  A.M.,  where  we  formed 
a  junction  with  the  Johnson  contingent. 

Shutting   one  eye,  and  feasting  the  other  on  the  Gordon 

setter,  the  major  half  way 
made  up  his  mind  not  to  take 
the  imported  animal  along. 
"  He  is  too  fine,  too  valuable, 
I  tell  you,  to  take  out  with 
such  a  dangerous  mob  as 
this.  He  might  get  hurt ; 
and,  gentlemen,  five  hundred 
dollars  in  gold  wouldn't  buy 
a  fifth  interest  in  that  pup. 
As  he  needs  relaxation,  how- 
ever, I  reckon  I'll  risk  him  ; 
but  be  careful  how  you  shoot,  and  don't  interrupt  him  when  he 
is  setting." 

The  procession  started.  It  was  not  long  before  it  halted  at 
a  mesqtiite  and  cactus  chaparral,  where  the  major  said  that  he 
knew  there  must  be  quail. 


THE    IMPORTED    DOG. 


662 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


"  Now,  gentlemen,  watch  him.  —  Set  steady,  s-t-e-a-d-y,  Duke, 
s-t-e-a-d-y,  sir." 

Duke  waved  his  feather-duster  tail  wildly  in  the  air,  barked 
several  cheerful  and  triumphant  barks,  then  holding  up  his 
nose  as  if  he  smelled  a  rat  or  saw  something  brewing  in  the 
air,  which  he  was  determined  to  nip  in  the  bud,  he  uttered  a 
prolonged  howl,  and,  leaping  with  a  joyous  bound  into  a  bunch 
of  prickly-pears,  he  flushed  an  entire  covey  of  quail,  and  also  a 
jack-rabbit,  which  he  remorselessly  pursued  across  the  prairie. 
Major  Johnson  was  also  flushed,  but  perhaps  that  was  the 
effects  of  the  demijohn. 

There  was  an  angry  glitter  in  the  corners  of  the  major's 

mouth  as  he  puckered  it  up, 
and  whistled  for  the  imported 
dog  to  return  ;  but  nobody  ex- 
cept the  rabbit  seemed  to  have 
any  influence  with  the  brute. 

He  had  got  his  Gordon  up, 
and  he  was  bound  to  overtake 
the  rabbit,  or  die  in  his  tracks. 
The  major  started  after  the 
valuable  animal,  followed  by 
such  suggestions  as,  "  Don't 
disturb  him  while  he  is  setting. 

Steady,  major,  s-t-e-a-d-y!"  "You  needn't  try,  major  :  you  know 
you  couldn't  sic  an  imported  dog  on  a  rabbit." 

At  least  half  an  hour  slipped  away  into  eternity  before  the 
major,  accompanied  by  Duke,  returned.  He  received  in  silence 
the  congratulations  of  his  friends  upon  the  recovery  of  the 
priceless  animal.  It  was  only  when  his  brother,  Tiff,  who  was 
one  of  the  party,  in  a  plug  hat  and  a  playful  mood  asked  if  the 
rabbit  had  been  captured,  that  the  major  displayed  emotion. 

He  said,  "  Tiff,  you  always  were  a ,  and  you  are  not 

improving  as  you  grow  older  ; "  and  then  he  proceeded  to  cut 
a  large  sapling,  without  stating  whether  it  was  for  Tiff  or  the 
descendant  of  the  winner  of  the  Astley  cup.  Then  followed 
a  painful  interview  between  Major  Johnson  and  the  son  of 
Horehound  by  Peruvian  Bark.  Tiff  looked  as  if  a  load  were 


THE  IMPORTED  DOG. 


663 


lifted  off  his  mind  when  he  found  that  the  club  was  for  the 
dog. 

It  seemed  that  Duke,  in  addition  to  his  value  as  a  hunting- 
dog,  possessed  musical  ability.  He  howled  a  touching  solo 
while  the  major  tapped  him  with  the  mesquite  sapling;  and  the 
audience  applauded  the  major,  and  soothed  him  with  such  re- 
marks as,  — 

"Don't  hit  him  on  his  pedigree,  major." 

"He  can't  help  it:  it's  his  hereditary  sagacity  that  makes 
him  do  it." 

The  major  got  through  instructing  the  dog,  with  the  remark 
that  he  thought  he  had  given  him  a  lesson  he  wouldn't  forget ; 
and  the  procession 
moved  on.  , 

The  hunters  for 
quail  were  about  to  re- 
tire from  the  business, 
when  Duke  flushed  a 
cow ;  and  while  he,  the 
cow,  and  the  major 
formed  a  moving  tab- 
leau out  on  the  prairie 
a  mile  to  the  left,  the 
excursionists  killed 
several  quail.  But, 
after  Duke  and  his  owner  rejoined  the  procession,  the  same  sad 
scenes  were  enacted  over  again,  the  major  using  his  cartridge- 
belt  this  time,  as  it  had  been  fully  demonstrated  that  slamming 
the  dog  against  trees,  and  beating  him  against  the  surface  of 
the  United  States,  had  failed  to  convey  the  desired  hint. 

It  was  suggested  to  the  major  by  his  brother,  that  the  pun- 
ishment might  alienate  the  affection  of  the  dog,  and  that  he 
might  run  away  and  not  return ;  but  the  major  replied  that  he 
had  no  fears  of  that,  as  Duke  was  very  much  attached  to  him. 

A  few  more  quail  were  shot  while  the  dog  was  giving  his 
attention  to  other  business,  but  the  sport  was  much  retarded 
by  the  major's  interviews  with  the  dog.  We  seriously  contem- 
plated buying  shares  in  the  valuable  animal,  so  that  the  major 


'DON'T    HIT    HIM    ON    HIS    PEDIGREE,    MAJOR." 


664  ON  A   MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

would  be  prevented  from  punishing  him  without  a  majority 
vote  of  the  stockholders.  We  compromised,  however,  by  ap- 
pointing a  delegation  to  wait  on  the  major,  and  suggest  that 
next  time  we  came  out  for  a  day's  sport  with  that  dog,  in  order 
to  save  time,  either  the  dog  be  properly  instructed  with  a  crow- 
bar before  starting  out^  or  else  that  the  major  keep  a  running 
account  of  the  brute's  indiscretions  during  the  hunt,  and  settle 
up  with  the  setter  all  at  once,  after  he  got  home,  taking  half  a 
day  and  a  plank  to  it. 

The  reader  will  suppose  that  twenty  minutes  have  elapsed, 
during  which  time  we  were  seeking  refreshments  at  the  wagon, 
when  we  were  startled  by  an  exclamation  from  the  major. 
The  dog  had  made  a  dead  set  at  something.  His  tail  was  as 
straight  as  a  party  ticket,  and  he  seemed  to  take  an  absorbing 
interest  in  a  bunch  of  long  grass.  He  was  prevailed  on  by 
encouraging  words  to  attack  the  bunch  of  grass.  There  is 
a  moment  of  breathless  excitement,  then  wild  commotion,  as  a 
small,  four-footed  animal  leaps  from  its  concealment,  trips  up 
the  major,  and  runs  over  him  in  its  mad  career  across  the  land- 
scape, with  Duke  in  pursuit.  A  vast  solitude  of  smell  sur- 
rounds us,  and  then  we  hurriedly  start  for  the  wagon.  The 
polecat  kept  on,  while  the  spotted  dog  still  pursued  her.  In 
addition  to  the  dog  flushing  the  polecat,  and  the  entire  party  of 
sportsmen  being  flushed  by  the  cat,  the  team  and  wagon  had 
been  flushed  by  the  combined  commotion,  and  the  driver  was 
making  desperate  efforts  to  prevent  them  from  climbing  over 
the  horizon.  When  we  at  last  got  into  the  wagon,  and  the 
major  had  recovered  his  dog,  and  a  large  share  of  the  promi- 
nent characteristics  of  the  polecat  that  came  back  with  him,  we 
were  gratified  to  find  that  the  demijohn  was  one  thing  that  had 
not  been  flushed.  It  was  the  only  thing  in  the  country  that 
had  a  natural  smell. 

Duke  was  tied  to  his  owner's  cartridge-belt  by  a  short  rope, 
to  keep  him  from  escaping  after  any  more  game.  It  was  a  sad 
journey  back  to  town  for  the  major;  and  the  remarks  made 
about  "  hereditary  intelligence  "  in  dogs,  and  the  influence  of 
"  trained  ancestors,"  seemed  to  pain  him.  Our  return  was 
marked  by  no  incident  worth  mentioning,  except  the  jumping 


THRALL'S  HISTORY  OF  TEXAS. 


665 


of  the  dog  out  of  the  wagon,  his  object  being  to  flush  another 
rabbit.  As  the  dog  was  very  much  attached  to  the  major,  —  by 
a  rope,  as  before  stated,  —  the  major  accompanied  his  faithful 
animal. 

Next  time  I  go  shooting  quail,  I  shall  take  several  imported 
dogs,  if  they  can  be  obtained.  I  find  that  they  add  much  to 
the  interest  of  the  sport. 

While  in  Austin,  I  borrowed  a  history  of  Texas  for  the  pur- 
pose of  verifying  some  historical  dates.  It  was  called  "The 
Pictorial  History  of  Texas,"  and  written  by  the  Rev.  H.  Thrall. 
As  a  history, 
the  book  is 
unique.  It 
contains 
three  hun- 
dred pages 
of  compila- 
tions from 
Y  o  k  u  m  '  s 
"History  of 
Texas,"  one 
hundred 
pages  of  por- 
traits and  bi- 
ographical 
sketches  of 

old  veterans  and  colonists,  whose  chief  merit  seems  to  have 
been  that  they  furnished  names  for  the  new  counties  created  in 
Texas  in  1860  and  1872.  The  rest  of  the  books  consists  of 
descriptions  of  towns  and  counties  as  they  existed  in  1878. 
But  it  is  the  pictorial  part  of  this  history  that  is  full  of  interest 
to  the  searcher  after  historic  lore,  and  the  true  inwardness  of 
past  events.  The  appropriateness  of  some  of  these  illustrations, 
and  their  bearing  on  history,  might  be  questioned.  Neverthe- 
less, it  must  interest  a  foreigner,  who  seeks  acquaintance  with 
the  history  of  Texas,  when  he  pays  five  dollars  for  Thrall's 
"  Pictorial  History,"  and,  opening  the  volume,  finds  a  wood- 
cut representing  the  unpretentious  Masonic  Hall  at  Palestine 


THE    DOG    WAS    VERY    MUCH    ATTACHED    TO    THE    MAJOR. 


666  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

(corner-stone  laid  A.D.  1875).  When  he  turns  over  a  few 
pages,  and  gazes  at  the  Methodist  church  at  Corpus  Christi 
(built  by  subscription  A.D.  18 — ),  the  artist's  close  adherence 
to  nature  will  forcibly  strike  him,  as  he  marks  the  uniformity 
of  the  pickets  in  the  fence  surrounding  the  church.  These  are 
little  things,  but  evidently  Mr.  Thrall  considered  them  parts  of 
the  history  of  a  great  country. 

The  engraving  entitled  "  Scene  on  the  Comal  River"  is  one  of 
the  best  and  most  appropriate  illustrations  I  ever  saw.  In  the 
foreground  is  a  neat  little  sheet  of  water,  with  a  rotten  log 
sticking  out  of  a  hole  in  it.  The  edge  of  the  water  is  fringed 
with  nondescript  trees  ;  and  a  small  boy,  with  an  unnecessary 
amount  of  bare  legs,  is  in  the  act  of  catching  a  very  large  fish. 
This  is  a  good  illustration,  because  it  is  appropriate  to  any 
river  in  the  world.  No  one  could  prove  that  it  was  not  a  scene 
on  the  Thames,  or  a  glimpse  of  the  Ganges.  Not  so  fortu- 
nate was  Mr.  Thrall  when  he  selected  the  second-hand  plate 
that  he  used  to  illustrate  "  A  Scene  on  the  Trinity  River." 
He  inadvertently  overlooked  the  fact  that  there  were  some 
palm-trees  in  the  picture,  and  palm-trees  do  not  grow  in  Texas. 
So  the  illustration  is  not  very  reliable  now ;  but  it  will  be  in 
the  years  to  come,  when  the  antiquary,  unearthing  a  copy  of 
the  "  Pictorial  History,"  proves  from  its  pages  that  back  in  the 
nineteenth  century  the  climate  was  tropical,  and  that  palm- 
trees  flourished  in  the  United  States.  Thus  it  is  that  history 
is  made. 

A  few  years  ago  the  people  of  Texas  gave  themselves  a 
constitution,  one  of  the  sections  of  which  reads  as  follows  : 
"The  Legislature  shall  have  no  power  to  appropriate  any  of 
the  public  money  for  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  a 
bureau  of  immigration,  or  for  any  purpose  of  bringing  immi- 
grants to  this  State." 

It  is  currently  believed  that  the  framers  of  the  Texas  con- 
stitution had  moss  two  feet  in  length  growing  on  their  backs. 

That  such  a  provision  as  that  quoted  is  to  be  found  in  the 
constitution  of  the  State,  is  a  disgrace  to  the  people  of  Texas, 
and  a  painful  commentary  on  their  intelligence.  I  was  grati- 
fied to  learn  that  fifty-six  thousand  voters  cast  their  votes 


THE    WANTS   OF  TEXAS.  667 

against  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  containing  the  anti- 
immigration  clause. 

Texas  needs  immigration,  —  there  can  be  no  question  about 
that,  —  and  the  kind  of  immigrants  Texas  wants  are  men  who 
will  produce  something, — men  who  will  add  to  the  intrinsic 
value  of  the  land  by  cultivating  and  improving  it,  —  men  who 
will  get  up  early  in  the  morning,  and  work  six  days  in  the 
week,  and  who  will  not  think  it  too  much  trouble  to  milk  a 
cow,  that  they  may  have  cream  for  their  coffee,  —  men  who  will 
not  be  content  merely  to  scratch  the  ground,  and  make  a  bare 
living,  but  who  will  plough  deep,  and  cultivate  the  land  as  the 
rich  and  productive  soil  of  Texas  should  be  cultivated.  Texas 
wants  these  men  to  bring  with  them  money  enough  to  buy 
land,  fence  it,  and  put  it  in  cultivation,  and  wants  them  to  have 
ambition  enough  to  aspire  to  something  better  in  the  future 
than  a  "  corn-bread  and  fry  "  diet. 

Texas  wants  any  number  of  strong,  able-bodied  men  who  can 
plough  and  dig,  and  sow  and  reap, — men  who  are  willing  to 
accept  reasonable  wages,  and  who  are  neither  ashamed  nor 
afraid  to  labor  on  a  farm,  drive  a  team,  or  work  on  a  cattle  or 
sheep  ranch,  —  men  who  will  rent  a  farm,  and  who  will  live 
economically  for  a  year  or  two,  content  to  use  molasses  now, 
that  they  may  have  butter  after  a  while. 

Texas  wants  capitalists,  —  men  who  have  energy  and  enter- 
prise to  utilize  the  irrigation  facilities  that  most  of  the  rivers 
and  streams  afford,  —  men  with  money  to  build  cotton  and 
woollen  mills,  to  run  saw-mills,  to  make  leather,  to  build  nar- 
row-gauge railroads,  to  utilize  the  immense  water-power,  and  to 
develop  the  mineral  resources  of  the  country. 

Texas  wants  the  farmer,  because  there  are  sixty-five  million 
acres  of  land  that  need  cultivating.  Texas  wants  to  add  to  her 
wealth  by  having  cotton,  corn,  wheat,  etc.,  raised  on  the  sixty- 
five  million  acres  that  are  now  unproductive. 

Political  economists  claim  that  the  average  immigrant  is 
indirectly  worth  to  the  State'  he  settles  in  one  thousand 
dollars.  This  valuation  of  the  immigrant  is  certainly  not  an 
over-estimation  ;  for  the  labor  of  one  man,  one  year,  breaking 
and  fencing,  will  add  five  hundred  dollars  to  the  value  of  a 


668  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

piece  of  prairie-land.  Every  laborer,  farmer,  and  stockman 
will,  by  his  labor,  add  something  to  the  wealth  of  the  State ; 
they  will  to  some  extent  increase  exports ;  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, every  citizen  will,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  be  bene- 
fited. It  could  easily  be  shown  how  the  merchant,  the  artisan, 
and  the  professional  man,  are  all  benefited  by  immigration  ;  but 
it  will  be  to  the  land-owner  that  the  most  immediate  and  direct 
profit  will  accrue.  He  will  sell  some  of  his  land  to  the  immi- 
grant, or,  if  he  does  not,  the  value  of  his  land  will  be  enhanced 
by  the  immigrant  settling  near  it. 

Texas  wants  the  stockman,  because  he  will  raise  cattle, 
horses,  and  sheep  on  the  great  prairies,  where  millions  of  acres 
of  grass  are  now  unused  ;  and,  shipping  these  cattle  to  foreign 
markets,  he  will  bring  back  gold,  or  the  necessities  and  luxuries 
that  gold  will  buy. 

The  immigrant  who  has  money  enough  to  buy  a  farm  can 
obtain  land  in  Texas  as  rich  as  any  in  the  United  States  at 
from  fifty  cents  to  five  dollars  an  acre,  according  to  location. 
He  can  buy  the  land,  and  pay  for  it  in  instalments  extending 
over  a  term  of  from  three  to  ten  years.  His  farm  will  not 
need  manure  during  his  lifetime.  The  average  yield  of  Texas 
farming-land  per  acre,  according  to  statistics  carefully  com- 
piled and  published  by  the  government,  is  as  follows  :  cotton, 
275  pounds ;  wheat,  24^  bushels ;  corn,  39!  bushels ;  oats,  56^ 
bushels. 

Texas  offers  the  immigrant  a  climate  that  will  allow  of  work 
in  the  fields  three  hundred  and  odd  days  in  the  year.  Texas 
offers  work  to  the  poor  man  who  is  without  money.  Farmers 
will  give  him  lodging  and  board,  and  pay  him  good  wages,  or 
they  will  rent  him  all  the  land  he  can  cultivate,  furnish  him 
with  teams  and  implements,  and  a  house  for  his  family  to  live 
in.  For  his  labor  they  will  give  him  one-half  of  the  crop  that 
he  may  raise.  They  will  furnish  him  and  his  family  with  pro- 
visions, receiving  payment  for  the  same  out  of  his  share  of  the 
crop  when  it  is  marketed. 

To  the  stockman,  Texas  offers  grass  that  is  green  all  the 
year  round  ;  and,  for  the  small  sum  of  from  fifty  cents  to  two 
dollars  an  acre,  he  can  get  a  deed  to  the  grass  and  the  land  it 


THE  FUTURE    OF  TEXAS.  669 

grows  on, — a  deed  that  will  hold  it  to  him,  his  heirs  and  as- 
signs, until  Gabriel  makes  the  last  grand  "round-up."  Texas 
offers  a  home  to  the  oppressed  of  all  nations,  —  a  home  where 
they  will  be  free  from  the  tyranny  of  landlords,  and  the  arro- 
gance of  the  alleged  superiority  of  birth,  and  where  they  will 
be  free  men,  with  a  voice  in  the  government  of  a  country  des- 
tined to  lead  the  nations  of  the  world. 

We  took  the  train  on  the  Central  Railroad  at  Austin,  and  we 
rode  a  day  and  a  night  before  we  crossed  the  Texas  line.  All 
along  the  road  the  land  is  rolling  prairie,  rich  and  productive. 
The  farms  are  better  cultivated  than  those  in  Southern  Texas  ; 
and  there  are  more  evidences  of  thrift  and  enterprise  surround- 
ing them  than  are  to  be  seen  in  the  southern  and  western  parts 
of  the  State. 

My  last  night  in  Texas  was  spent  in  lower  berth  No.  7,  in  a 
Pullman  car,  between  Hearne  and  the  gate-city  of  Texas,  — 
Denison. 

I  was  lying  in  my  berth,  looking  out  at  the  moonlit  land- 
scape, trying  to  picture  to  myself  the  future  of  the  great  State 
of  Texas  ;  the  man  in  upper  No.  6  was  snoring  with  the  regu- 
larity of  a  death-watch ;  the  porter  was  turning  down  the 
lights ;  the  passenger  in  the  berth  above  had  just  retired ;  and 
the  wheels  of  the  car  were  reciting  that  monotonous  and  sooth- 
ing lullaby,  "rickety-clack,  rick,  rack,"  —  when  the  wand  of 
Morpheus  touched  me.  The  noise  of  the  wheels,  as  they  jolted 
and  bumped  over  the  worn-out  rails  of  the  Central  Railroad, 
became  more  and  more  indistinct,  until  I  ceased  to  be  con- 
scious of  its  existence. 

Then  there  appeared  to  me  the  spirit  that  presides  over 
dreams  and  visions.  He  invested  me  with  supernatural  power 
of  vision  and  of  intuition ;  and  then,  taking  me  by  the  hand,  he 
carried  me  up  above  the  earth,  and,  with  that  absurd  incon- 
gruity that  characterizes  dreams  and  visions,  time  and  distance 
had  no  measure.  In  a  few  moments  we  passed  over  the  whole 
length  and  breadth  of  Texas;  not  the  Texas  I  had  known 
before,  but  the  Texas  of  the  year  1950, — Texas  with  fifteen 
thousand  miles  of  railroads,  —  Texas  with  seventy-five  million 
acres  of  corn,  cotton,  and  sugar  fields,  — Texas  with  fifteen  mil- 


670  ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 

lion  inhabitants.  I  saw  cities  and  towns  that  had  sprung  up 
since  the  century's  birth,  and  become  great  manufacturing  and 
commercial  centres.  In  these  cities  and  towns  I  heard  the 
whir  of  innumerable  cotton-spindles ;  the  purring  sound  of 
molten  metal,  as  it  was  poured  into  mould  and  matrix ;  the 
clatter  of  hundreds  of  sewing-machines,  as  they  made  into  gar- 
ments the  cotton  and  woollen  fabrics  manufactured  on  Texas 
looms.  I  passed  by  great  buildings,  noisy  with  the  rattle  of 
machinery  that  manufactured  all  manner  of  articles  fashioned 
of  iron  and  steel,  and  brass  and  copper.  In  one  city  the 
manufacture  of  pottery  and  glass  was  the  principal  industry : 
in  another,  it  was  paper,  leather,  and  agricultural  implements. 

We  stopped  for  a  moment  on  the*  magnificent  monument 
erected  on  Capitol  Hill,  Austin,  in  1895,  by  the  State  of  Texas, 
to  commemorate  the  heroic  deeds  done  at  the  Alamo.  From 
the  summit  of  this  imposing  pile,  we  looked  down  upon  the 
capital  of  the  largest,  richest,  and  politically  the  most  powerful, 
State  in  the  Union. 

An  old  man  stood  beside  me  on  the  parapet,  talking  to  a  boy. 
He  said,  — 

"  My  son,  the  advantages  that  surround  you  should  give  you 
much  cause  for  thankfulness.  When  I  was  your  age,  a  large 
majority  of  the  men  who  held  office,  and  who  made  our  laws, 
were  old  fossils,  who  were  fit  for  little  else  than  to  tell  lies 
about  how  honest  the  citizens  of  Texas  were,  and  what  good 
times  they  had,  in  'the  palmy  days  of  the  republic.' 

"They  retarded  the  growth  and  progress  of  the  State  by 
their  moss-backed  laws,  illiberal  policy,  and  short-sighted  states- 
manship ;  but,  thank  God !  these  things  could  only  delay,  not 
prevent,  the  progress  of  a  State  with  the  wonderful  natural 
advantages  that  Texas  has.  In  the  time  I  speak  of,  much  of 
our  great  wealth  of  public  land  was  squandered.  The  State 
did  very  little  to  educate  her  children.  The  doors  of  the  pub- 
lic schools  were  closed  nine  months  in  the  year.  We  had  not 
a  public  library  in  the  State ;  and  the  man  who  was  so  ignorant 
that  he  could  not  write  his  name  had  the  same  voice  in  the 
government  of  the  country  that  the  most  intelligent  citizen 
had.  In  those  days  the  law  said,  in  substance,  that  twelve  of 


LEAVING    TEXAS.  671 

the  most  ignorant  men  the  sheriff  could  find  were  to  be  selected 
to  act  as  jurors  in  murder  cases;  and  the  courts  virtually 
decided  that  the  stealing  of  a  pony  was  a  crime  deserving  of 
more  severe  punishment  than  the  killing  of  a  man.  Then 
intelligence  was  transmitted  long  distances  by  means  of  the 
old-fashioned  and  cumbrous  telegraph-wires ;  and  the  best  mo- 
tive power  we  had  to  run  our  railroad-trains,  and  all  kinds  of 
heavy  machinery,  was  the  dangerous  and  expensive  steam- 
power  that  you  have,  no  doubt,  read  about. 

"  But  you,  in  this  year  of  grace,  have  inherited  the  grand  inven- 
tions of  the  last  one  hundred  years,  —  inventions  that  are  equal 
in  power  and  usefulness  to  those  of  all  the  preceding  years  in 
the  world's  history.  The  generation  now  taking  hold  of  the  pol- 
itics and  business  of  the  State  has  benefited  by  the  magnificent 
public  schools  that  were  established  twenty-five  years  ago,  and 
that  have  been  nurtured  and  perfected  by  wise  legislation  since. 
The  intelligent,  the  educated,  the  best  men  in  the  State  aspire 
to  seats  in  the  legislative  halls,  and  you,  therefore,  enjoy  the 
blessing  of  intelligent  and  just  laws;  and,  as  a  consequence, 
the  name  of  Judge  Lynch  is  now  only  a  tradition.  Of  all  the 
'  goodly  heritage '  that  has  been  bequeathed  to  you,  there  is 
nothing  that  you  should  be  more  proud  of  than  the  sight  that 
greets  your  eyes  as  you  look  over  to  yonder  hill,  and  see  the 
towers  and  domes  and  spires  of  the  Texas  University,  —  a  seat 
of  learning  that  has  no  superior,  except  in  age,  in  the  United 
States.  My  son,  you  have  much,  very  much,  to  be  thankful  for." 

We  left  the  old  man  and  the  boy  on  the  monument,  as  we 
passed  over  the  State  House,  built  in  1890,  and  which,  in 
beauty  of  architectural  lines,  vastness  of  extent,  and  richness 
of  material,  is  a  great  contrast  to  the  old  State  House  that 
formerly  stood  on  the  same  spot.  On,  over  plains  covered  with 
waving  corn,  and  past  fields  white  with  cotton-bolls,  where 
mechanical  cotton-pickers  were  each  doing  the  work  that  for- 
merly twenty  negroes  did  not  do  as  well,  —  out  to  the  mining- 
regions  of  the  West,  where  the  hills  are  pierced,  drilled,  and 
honey-combed  with  shaft  and  tunnel  and  pit ;  where  tens  of 
thousands  of  mines  are  rifling  the  strongholds  of  the  everlast- 
ing hills  of  their  treasures  of  gold,  silver,,  copper,  coal,  and 


672 


ON  A  MEXICAN  MUSTANG. 


iron,  —  down  along  the  irrigated  valleys  of  the  Rio  Grande, 
and  up  the  low  coast-line  of  the  State,  we  sweep,  until  we  pause 
for  a  moment  at  the  city  of  Galveston,  the  great  seaport  of 
Texas.  We  see  fleets  of  ships  from  all  parts  of  the  world 
anchored  at  her  wharves,  and  being  loaded  with  cotton  and 
wool,  corn  and  wheat,  and  hundreds  of  minor  products  that 
Texas  has  become  famous  for.  We  see  the  representatives  of 
wealth  and  fashion  driving  on  the  magnificent  beach,  lolling  on 
the  balconies  of  the  immense  hotels,  or  promenading  on  the 
iron  pier,  while  we  hear  the  newsboys  calling,  "  Yere's  yer 
'  Galveston  Illustrated  Daily  News  ! '  Twenty-four  pages  fur  a 
cent !  "  We  listen  for  a  moment  to  the  bands  playing,  and 
above  the  roar  of  the  ocean  we  hear,  "  DENISON  !  PASSEN- 
GERS FOR  THE  NORTH  —  TWENTY  MINUTES  FOR  BREAKFAST!" 


DATE  DUE 


GAYLORD 


PRINTED  IN  U    S    A 


"in  minim  inn  INI;  i|i]  mil  mi  (in 

A     000570510     8 


